Chapter 4: The Alpha's Command

By dusk I had split a third of the woodpile and left blood on every handle.

My parents' black SUV came up the gravel drive just as I set down the axe.

Stonegate's wolves came out onto the porch to watch.

My father got out first, broad and bearded, with a leather case under his arm.

My mother followed in a camel coat, and her eyes went straight to my hands.

"Alpha Holloran," my father said, with his big host's voice. "I've come for my daughter."

Jasper stood at the top of the steps.

"She's mine for a year and a day. Council law."

"Council law also allows the family to pay the debt in coin." My father opened the case and held it out. "Two million. Take it for your trouble."

Jasper looked at the check in the case.

He did not touch it.

"I don't want your money, Brennick."

"Then be reasonable. She's unwell. Five years in silver does things to the mind, and she's been telling stories about her sister."

"I heard the stories," Jasper said.

The wolves on the porch shifted, and I couldn't read what it meant.

My mother crossed the yard and took my bleeding hand in both of hers.

Her fingers were cold.

"Come home, baby," my mother said. "Sign the paper, and all this goes away. Your sister will see you're looked after."

"You told me six months."

"I did what I could."

"You did what you wanted," I said.

Her eyes filled, and her hands tightened on mine.

She did not take them away, and she did not say I was wrong.

My father snapped the case shut.