After Rebirth, I Broke Our Bond and My Alpha Regretted It novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Necklace

On her birthday Kestrel hands the wolf-tooth necklace back in front of the pack and sets her terms; the torn cord burns when Caleb's fist closes; Lenora faints at the toast, coughing blood.

"Ask me again in nine days," I said, and I shut the door in his face.

I leaned on it with my forehead against the wood.

He stood out there a long time before the gravel crunched away.

On the ninth day it was my birthday, and Thornwood held a feast for it anyway.

Every Beta's child gets one at twenty-four, and the pack would have talked for a year if I had skipped mine.

Ida had said as much, handing me my green dress.

"If you hide, they'll call it guilt. Go and eat something where they can see you."

"Guilt of what?"

"Whatever they've decided you did by now."

The long hall was loud and warm, with tables end to end and children running under them.

Eyes followed me to my seat, and the talk dropped as I passed and picked up behind me.

Caleb sat at the head table with the elders on both sides.

He looked tired.

I felt it through the cord, a dull weight low in my chest that was not mine.

Lenora sat three seats down from him in a pale blue dress.

She was thinner than she had been nine days ago, and her hands lay still in her lap.

Maud sat beside her, cutting her bread into small pieces.

I had barely taken my seat when a boy ran up to me with a flat wooden box.

"From the Alpha," the boy said. "He said it's for your birthday."

I knew what was in it before I lifted the lid.

A wolf's tooth, polished and set in silver, on a braided leather cord.

It was exactly as I remembered it.

In my first life I had cried when I opened it, and Caleb had fastened it around my neck with his own hands.

The hall had gone quiet to watch me.

I stood up with the box in both hands and walked to the head table.

Caleb stood too, slowly.

I set the box down in front of his plate.

"Thank you, Alpha," I said, flat and polite. "I can't wear it."

A murmur ran down the tables.

"It was my grandfather's," Caleb said. "I had it set for you."

"Then give it to someone who wants it."

I kept my voice down, so that only the head table could hear, and I said the rest quickly.

"I'm bound to your land for a year. I'll live with that. But I have three terms."

His jaw tightened.

"One. You don't speak to me in public as if I were yours."

"Two. You don't touch me."

"Three. You stay out of Ida's cottage."

Caleb looked at the box.

"You tore the cord in front of two hundred wolves," he said, low. "And you give me terms."

"Yes."

His fist closed on the edge of the table.

A splinter of wood went into the heel of his hand, and I felt it in my own palm.

I gasped before I could stop myself, and I pressed my hand against my chest.

He saw me do it.

He looked at his bleeding hand, and then at mine, and his face went very still.

"I'll keep the first two," he said finally. "I won't promise the third."

"Then we're done."

"Kestrel."

I walked back to my seat.

My father would not look at me.

Ida pushed a plate toward me and said, "Eat," and I picked up a fork and could not taste anything.

A moment later the elders rose for the toast.

The oldest one lifted his cup and said, "To Kestrel Thorley, twenty-four years old, a daughter of this pack."

It was a stiff, careful toast, and I knew he gave it only because the law demanded it.

The hall raised its cups.

I raised mine.

On the other side of the table, Lenora lifted her cup of water, smiled at me, and tried to say something.

She coughed instead.

It was a small cough at first, and she put her napkin to her mouth.

Then she coughed again, and it did not stop.

Her cup slid out of her fingers and rolled across the table.

"Lenora?" Maud said, and stood.

Lenora's eyes went to the ceiling and her body folded sideways off the bench.

Caleb was already moving.

He crossed the hall and caught her before her head struck the floor.

"Ida!" he shouted. "Get Ida!"

Ida was already running, her bag swinging from her shoulder.

Maud dropped to her knees on the stone beside her daughter.

"Oh, my girl, my girl," she said, and she was crying.

The napkin had fallen open on the floor.

There was blood on it, bright and wet, in three spreading spots.

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend