The Alpha Who Rejected His Queen novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Gray Wolf

Wystan woke at noon and cursed the old healer for ten full minutes.

She told him he could curse her sitting down, and he did.

I brought him broth.

He drank half of it and looked at me over the rim.

"You've been crying," he said.

"I have not."

"You have, and I'm proud of you." He set the bowl down. "Sit. I owe you something I've owed for twenty-four years."

I sat on the edge of the cot.

"Your mother didn't die in a fight," he said. "Osric killed her."

The room went quiet.

"Aurelle was the last Moon Queen. Osric wanted her wed to the Wolcott Alpha so the line would feed him. She refused."

"And he killed her for that."

"He sent rogues to the border the night you were born. She ran with you in her arms, and they caught her at the bridge."

His hand tightened on the blanket.

"I was a day late. I found her at dawn, and no baby. I searched the border for a week."

"The healer found me," I said.

"Osric left you there for her to find." His mouth twisted. "He didn't kill a baby with a Moon-line bond. He raised her in his own pack and waited for her to turn eighteen."

I could not speak.

For twenty-four years I had wondered why nobody wanted me.

Somebody had wanted me very much.

He had wanted me as a battery.

"I waited at that bridge six years because I knew what you'd be," Wystan said gently. "I thought I'd lost you when you turned eighteen and nobody came."

"You didn't lose me."

"I know that now."

I leaned forward and put my forehead against his shoulder, and he held me with his good arm.

"I'm going to kill him," I said.

"I know you are."

"Slowly."

"I'll hold your coat."

I laughed, and it hurt.

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