Sold to the Wolf Chief for a Debt, but His Wolf Knelt First novel · Chapter 22 of 24
Chapter 22: Mine
We were in the long kitchen before the church bells in Inverness began to ring the year in.
The house was empty.
The sixty-one had gone down to the village with Peigi to drink to their own wrists.
The range was banked and red in the dark.
I stood in front of it with my left arm held out.
"Hold the knife with me," I said.
Coll took the Chief's knife from the table.
He put his hand over mine on the black handle and his other hand under my wrist.
He slid the blade beneath the cord.
The red wool was grey with weeks of washing, and the knot was the one I had pulled with my teeth.
"Whose is it to cut?" he asked.
"Mine," I said. "Slowly."
We drew the blade out together.
The wool parted with a small sound.
It lay across his palm, a short limp thing.
Under it my wrist was white and bare, with a pale line pressed into the skin.
Far away across the glen, a bell began to ring.
I took the cord from his hand and opened the door of the range.
I dropped it onto the coals, and it flared once, bright red, and was gone.
"Happy New Year," I said.
"Happy New Year, Ishbel Macrae," Coll said.
"Not Macrae."
"Of the Grey House, then."
"That's closer," I said.
I put my arms round his neck and kissed him until the bells were done.
My wrist had been bound for eleven weeks, and it felt light against the back of his head.
Then I stepped away and took the hank of red wool out of my pocket.
It was the wool I had taken from Peigi's sewing basket in October.
It had lived in every coat I owned since.
"You kept it," Coll said, hoarse.
"Aye. Strip."
He undressed in the glow of the range.
His hands shook on the buttons, and I did not help him.
When he stood naked on the flags I took him by the wrist and led him to the long table.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of Sold to the Wolf Chief for a Debt, but His Wolf Knelt First are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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