Half Were Mine novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Nine Boxes

Bronwyn moves out on the anniversary, tells Rhett she read the declaration, and says she will ask the Alpha herself; her brother has put her on the Alpha's detail.

Rhett went three days without speaking to me.

He ate at the pack hall, slept on his side of the bed, and left before I woke.

I didn't apologize once.

On the morning of the fourth anniversary, I was on the porch with a roll of tape when Cormac's truck came up the gravel road.

Two patrol wolves rode in the back, big young men who jumped down and started carrying boxes before I finished saying hello.

My brother stood in the middle of the cabin with his hands on his hips.

"Where's the rest?"

"That's all of it," I said. "Four years, and it fits in nine boxes."

Cormac picked up a framed photo from the shelf, the one cropped so tight it showed only my face and half of a shoulder.

He turned it over and read the back.

Rhett had written the date in pencil. Nothing else.

"He couldn't even write your name on it."

"Put it in the box, Cormac."

"I'm going to put it in the fire."

"Box. We'll burn it together later."

He put it in the box.

By noon the bedroom was empty and the truck was full.

I was wiping down the kitchen counter when I heard boots on the porch.

Rhett came in, saw the boxes by the door, and stopped.

He looked at my brother, then at me.

He smiled a little, the smile he used when he thought I was bluffing.

"Cormac. Give us a minute."

"No," my brother said.

"It's fine," I said. "Wait outside."

Cormac went. I heard him tell the other two to stay in the truck.

Rhett set his keys on the table and spoke in the gentle voice he used after a fight, when he wanted me to cry.

"Bronwyn. Today is our day. I booked us a table at the lodge in town."

"You didn't."

"I was going to tell you tonight."

"I read the page on your desk," I said.

He didn't move.

"The declaration. Rhett Sawyer and Jodie Ashcroft. Present Jodie with the bracelet."

His face went smooth and blank.

"That's the Elder," he said. "She's been pushing Jodie at me since spring. It's politics, Bronwyn. If I'm seen courting someone, nobody looks at us. It's cover."

"It's cover."

"It protects you."

"You gave her my bracelet?"

"I lost that bracelet."

"You didn't lose it. You put it in the drawer under your socks. I saw it there in March."

He said nothing.

I felt my hands begin to shake, so I put them flat on the counter.

"Did you ever ask the Alpha for an exception?" I said. "Even once?"

"Every time. You know that. He says no every time, and my hands are tied."

I had heard that lie so often I knew where each breath went.

I should have been angry.

Instead I felt light, and a little sick.

"Then I'll ask him myself."

Rhett's eyes snapped to mine.

For the first time in four years he looked frightened.

"Stay away from him."

"Why?"

"Because he doesn't like surprises, and you'll make it worse for both of us. Give me until after the moot. I'll go to the Alpha myself. I swear it on the Moon."

"You swore on the Moon last winter."

"Bronwyn."

"You swore you'd meet my parents. You never wrote to them."

He reached for my arm.

I stepped back, and his hand closed on air.

It was the first time I had ever done that.

We both stood there looking at his empty hand.

"Don't do this," he said quietly. "You'll be back by the weekend. You always come back."

I took my key off the ring.

I set it on the counter, on the clean wet spot where I had been wiping.

"Happy anniversary, Rhett."

I walked out past him and didn't look behind me.

Cormac was leaning on the truck with his arms crossed. He took one look at my face and opened the passenger door.

"Is he coming out?"

"No."

"Good," my brother said. "I wanted to put him through the wall, and I promised you I wouldn't."

I laughed, and then I was crying, and I let it come.

We were turning onto the county road when my phone buzzed.

It was the weekly duty roster, sent to every wolf in the tactical unit.

I read my name, and then I read where it was.

I had been moved from the southern boundary to the Alpha's own detail, starting at dawn tomorrow.

The note at the bottom said: Reassigned by C. Harlan, head of patrols.

I looked at my brother.

He kept his eyes on the road.

"Don't look at me like that," Cormac said. "You said you wanted to meet someone decent."

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