Claiming The Spare Twin novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The Training Ring

Finlay had the door open and his jeans zipped before I finished saying "Mother."

By the time he was out in the rain, the road was empty.

He stood in the headlights with his chest heaving, scanning the trees.

"Gone," he said, climbing back in. He was wet to the skin. "She watched us the whole time."

"She followed us." My voice cracked. "My own mother ran after us in wolf form so she could watch."

"Or she wanted you to know she could." He gripped the wheel. "Why would a Beta tail a girl up a logging road in the rain?"

I didn't have an answer.

I only knew the cold in my stomach had nothing to do with the rain.

He drove us home in silence and walked me to the kitchen door.

At the step he kissed me once, hard, and said, "Lock your window. I mean it."

I didn't need telling.

The next afternoon the pack gathered in the ring for the last open sparring day before the Trial.

Every she-wolf in Ashfall under twenty-five was there in training gear, and every wolf in the pack lined the rope to watch.

I stood at the back, in my kitchen apron, with Finlay beside me.

My mother stood at the front, perfectly calm, in her gray jacket, and didn't look at me once.

"Odette Lundqvist against the east lodge girl," the elder announced.

The girl was nineteen and half Odette's weight, a quick brown-haired thing who had never beaten her at anything.

Odette stepped into the ring, and the crowd made the sound it always made.

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