Chapter 10: Registration

"Good morning, darling," Briony said.

She stepped past Torin's arm and into the lodge hallway without being asked.

The elder followed her, slowly, with his paper held out in front of him.

Torin did not stop her.

I watched him decide not to, and I watched him decide not to look at her either.

He shut the door and stood against it with his eyes on the floor.

"Torin," the elder said.

"Alpha. I'm sorry for the hour. The Luna asked that I serve this in person."

"Serve what?" Torin said.

"A notice of registration."

Briony set her basket on the hall table and took off her gloves one finger at a time.

"There are children on pack land who aren't in the register, and the law is the law," she said.

"Any child living on the pack road must be entered under the Luna's care until a parent is found. It's for their protection."

She turned her smile on me.

"It's only paper, Ingrid. I'd never take them from you."

"Whose parents?" I said.

"Pardon?"

"You said until a parent is found. Whose parent are you looking for?"

Her smile stayed where it was.

"Well, a father, naturally. The poor things have been so long without."

"Their father is Torin Wolcott," I said.

I said it in the hall, to her face.

I said it in front of the elder and the four sentries who had come up behind him from the yard.

Nobody moved.

I had spent seven years rehearsing how I would never say that.

It came out in an even voice, and it was the easiest thing I had said all week.

"Orin and Hazel Haldane are his children," I said.

"They have been since the night they were made. You don't need to find anyone."

The back door opened.

Both children came in from the porch with toast in their hands.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Bearing the Ruthless Alpha's Twins from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.