The Werewolf King's Regret: Punishing the Wrong Daughter novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: The First Lash

The king's study smelled of ink, cold ash and pine.

A fire was laid but not lit, and a long table held maps weighted at the corners with stones.

Lucan Hartmoor stood at the window with his back to me, fully dressed, hands clasped behind him.

The right one was still wrapped in its tea-colored bandage.

Perrin had walked me to the door and then, tactfully, back out of it.

It stayed open behind me.

"Close it," said the king, without turning.

"My terms say it stays open."

A pause.

"They do."

He turned around.

Last night, he had been a wild thing in a bed.

This morning his face was shut and cold, his hair was combed, and the only trace of the fever was the shadows under his eyes.

"Take off your shirt," he said.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Your back." The corner of his mouth moved, which on him passed for a smile. "Perrin tells me you say the lines closed. I want to see."

"You can take it from me that they did."

"I'd rather see."

I looked at him for a long second.

Then I turned my back and unlaced the neck of my shift just enough, and drew it aside from my shoulder.

I felt his eyes, and then the pause, and then his breath, which was not even.

"There is nothing there," he said.

"No."

"No scar. Nothing to show it was ever opened."

I pulled the cloth back up and turned.

"What did you do to me?" he said.

"Nothing."

"Nine days ago I laid twenty strokes on a girl in a yard. This morning I woke up with the same twenty on me, and they heal only when you touch them. If that is not a Marwood curse, tell me what it is."

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