Chapter 14: Not Following

Bram's POV

She told me she was going, and I let her.

"Term three," Linnea said, with one hand on the truck door and the other flat on her stomach. "I leave when I want, and you don't follow."

"The curse is waking."

"Then I'll be sick in front of Garland instead of in front of you."

Her face was grey, and she was still giving orders.

I had never loved her more, and I had never been more afraid.

"Go," I said.

Addie drove her down the forest road with Burke's truck behind them.

I stood in the yard and kept my word for as long as I could stand it.

It was less than ten minutes.

Then I took the other truck, because the term said I wouldn't follow her.

It didn't say I couldn't visit Garland Ashdane on my own business.

I know what that is.

It's the kind of reading I'd have thrown out if Burke had tried it on me.

I did it anyway.

The Greywater lodge had its lamps lit in every window.

Wolves were arriving in pairs and family groups, in good coats, talking low.

I walked through them with my left hand open at my side, and the scars showed, and not one of them stopped me.

Garland received me in his study.

He was in an armchair by a fire, with his stick across his knees, and he didn't get up.

"Alpha Wolcott," he said. "You're early. And you've told her, haven't you? I can smell it on you."

"She knows."

"Then the cure is finished." He sighed gently, as if I had spilled a drink. "What a pity. It was such a cheap price, for what you got."

"I'm not here for the cure."