Everyone Who Entered the Forbidden Room Wanted Me Dead novel · Chapter 1 of 32
Chapter 1: The Door
Tobias walks into the Forbidden Room in front of the whole pack and comes out with his hands around Bryn's throat. She walks out of the gate; at the border stone every wolf howls.
The whole Redcedar pack stood in the courtyard to watch my fated mate walk into the Forbidden Room.
Two hundred wolves had come, and not one of them had come to wish him luck.
They had come to see what he would do to me when he came out.
My father stood on the porch steps with the iron key on its chain at his neck.
He had made the rule when I was seven years old.
Anyone who wanted me as a mate, or meant to shelter me, had to go through that oak door alone first.
If they still wanted me when they came out, he would not stand in their way.
Four people had gone in since I turned eighteen.
A suitor from the east ridge went in.
So did the old healer who tried to take me in, and a cousin, and a young hunter who only wanted to lend me his coat.
Every one of them came out looking at me with a stranger's face.
Every one of them wanted me dead.
The healer lived two more winters and never looked in my direction again.
The cousin still sat in the kitchen loft, muttering, and nobody would say what to.
The pack called me the curse of Redcedar, and I had stopped answering to it.
Then three days ago, at the river, I met Tobias Ward, and the mate bond snapped on between us in one hard pull.
He was the best tracker in the pack, and he had never once been cruel to me.
"I'll go in," he said that same night. "I'm not afraid of a door."
"Please don't," I said.
"Bryn, I'd walk through fire for you."
I should have said no louder.
I said it once, and he kissed my forehead and went.
Now he stood in front of the oak door with his hand on the iron ring.
My stepmother Sabine slipped her arm through mine.
She was the pack's Luna, and she was the only person in the house who had ever brought me soup when I was sick.
"Nothing in that room can touch a bond like yours," she said softly. "He'll be out in a minute, sweetheart."
Her hand was shaking against my sleeve.
She said it was the cold.
Across the courtyard, by the gate, stood the border guard my father had hired three months ago.
His name was Elias Rook, and he wore a worn canvas jacket and kept his arms folded.
He watched people's mouths when they talked, never their eyes.
Tobias looked back at me once and smiled.
My father turned the key.
The door swung open, and a thin high whine ran through every wolf's mind link at once.
Two hundred people flinched.
Hands went to ears, though the sound was never in the ears.
Sabine's nails dug into my arm.
Elias was the only one who didn't move.
He was watching Tobias's mouth.
Tobias stepped out of the dark and the door closed behind him.
His green eyes were flat and wide, and he looked at me with the same stranger's face as the others.
"Tobias?" I said.
"You killed her," he said.
I did not know who he meant.
He crossed the courtyard in four strides.
Nobody stopped him.
He put both hands on my throat and squeezed.
My feet left the ground.
The sky went white at the edges, and I clawed at his wrists and could not make him let go.
I heard my own stepmother say, "Oh, no," in a small kind voice.
I heard my father say nothing at all.
Two hundred wolves stood and watched.
Then a shadow came in from the side, and a forearm hooked across Tobias's neck.
Elias Rook dragged him backward with a grip that locked, and Tobias's hands tore away from me.
I hit the dirt on my knees and breathed in with a ragged, burning gasp.
Tobias thrashed in Elias's arm, reaching for me with his fingers still curled.
"Kill her," he kept saying. "Somebody kill her."
Elias held him down and looked up at my father.
My father came down the steps without any hurry.
He had the calm face he wore for every bad thing that ever happened in our house.
"Take Tobias to the cells until he's himself," he said. "Bryn goes to the cellar."
"For what?" I said. My voice came out as a rasp.
"For your safety," he said. "He is still in the room's grip, and you are in no state to be among the pack."
A few wolves nodded.
Someone near the back said, "She did it again."
I looked at the faces around me, and not one of them was looking at what had happened to my throat.
I stood up.
"No," I said.
"Bryn," my father said, and there was Alpha in it, a hard pull on my wolf.
I put my hand over my neck, and I felt the swelling there, and I made my choice.
So I walked out.
I walked across the courtyard past two hundred people, and none of them dared touch me.
At the gate Elias had already pulled the bolt, and he stood to one side and let me through without a word.
Behind me Sabine called, "Sweetheart, come home, we'll fix this."
I did not turn around.
I walked down the long drive between the cedars to the border stone, and I put one foot past it.
My chest cracked open with pain.
And behind me, from every throat in Redcedar, the whole pack began to howl at once.
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