The Alphas Broken Mate novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: The Gate

Lark's POV

"Yes," I said.

He stood at the foot of the steps with the torchlight on his face and did not breathe.

"Yes to the hold," I said. "Yes to the chair, if I get to pick where it stands."

"Yes to the Council seat. The Callers will have one, the way your father wanted."

"And yes to you."

I put my hand on his chest, over the place where his heart was going hard.

"You didn't have to ask," I said. "I'd have said it every time."

Caius shut his eyes, and for a long moment he only held me.

Seven days later we hung the gate.

The smiths had worked on it day and night in the lower yard.

The forge roared under the same wall where the cage had stood.

They had taken every bar of the tribute cage and melted it down.

What came out of the fire was a pair of tall black gates, plain and heavy, with a single latch on the inside.

The whole pack stood in the yard, and the Council's eldest Alpha stood with them.

So did the families.

Caius had sent riders to every holding in the mountains.

They had come back with mothers and brothers and one grey-haired father who walked with a cane.

Nine families stood in a half circle in front of the gate.

Bryony had found the nine names in the second copy of the ledger, hidden in Osric's cellar under a floor stone.

She handed me the page.

I read the names out loud, one at a time.

I said each one slowly and clearly, with my new whole tongue.

After every name, a smith struck the iron with his hammer, one blow, and the sound went out over the yard.

The father with the cane was crying openly by the fourth.

By the ninth, nobody in the yard was not.

"They are not Expired," I said, when the last blow had faded. "They had names. They were somebody's daughters."

"Any girl who comes through this gate comes in by her own choice, and she leaves when she wants."

"If any man in this hold lays a hand on her, he answers to me."

I Called the last word, softly, and four hundred wolves put their fists to their chests.

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