Fated to My Mate's Uncle novel · Chapter 10 of 32

Chapter 10: The Boy

I put myself between the boy and the last shelf.

"Hi, sweetheart," I said. "You're up late."

"So are you."

He came two steps into the room, curling his bare toes on the cold stone.

He had Angus's sandy hair.

He had Gregor's pale blue eyes.

I'd spent eight years making myself not see that.

"That's my dad's box," he said again. "Mom says nobody's allowed to touch it. They're burning it tomorrow."

"I know."

"Why are you touching it?"

I could lie to him.

I'd lied to myself in that house for five years. I was good at it.

"Because I think I made a mistake a long time ago," I said. "About what happened to your dad. And I wanted to check before it's gone."

He thought about that.

Then he sniffed, a small wolf sniff, and looked past my hip at the shelf.

"Somebody's behind there."

"Yes."

"Is it the exile? Uncle Gregor says there's an exile who wants to hurt us."

"It's a friend of mine. He's not going to hurt anybody."

"He smells like a campfire."

"He's a firefighter."

From behind the shelf, Fraser said quietly, "Hi."

The boy's eyes went round.

"Hi," he whispered back.

"Nice pajamas," Fraser said. "Is that a stegosaurus?"

"Ankylosaurus."

"My mistake."

The boy almost smiled.

Then he looked at me again, and his face went serious, too serious for eight.

"Did you make a mistake about my dad?"

"I think so."

"Is it about Uncle Gregor?"

My heart stopped.

"Why would you ask that?"

He shrugged one bony shoulder.

"Because Uncle Gregor goes to the river every July. By himself. At night. He takes a bottle and sits at the ford, and when he comes home he cries in the kitchen and Mom tells him to be quiet."

"Every July?"

"Every one I remember." He scratched his ankle with his other foot. "I come here when I can't sleep. There's a picture of my dad by the stairs. Nobody comes in here at night. I like it."

"Is he at the river tonight?"

The boy nodded.

"He left after supper. He took the brown bottle."

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