Half Were Mine novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Say the Word

I should have said nobody. I should have said it was an old joke.

But my ankle throbbed, and I was cold, and I was too tired to protect a man who had never protected me.

"Rhett said it," I said. "He said it to other wolves, mostly. He said I was getting too old to be picky and I should aim for a widower, or a lone wolf passing through."

Torsten said nothing.

We were standing at the top of the bank with his arm around my back, and I felt every muscle in it turn to stone.

"He said it to who?" he said at last.

"The enforcement unit. the Elder's dinners. Anybody who'd laugh."

"How often?"

"Is that an Alpha question?"

"Yes."

"Often." I swallowed. "Every month or so. He said it was to throw people off."

"And you were in the room."

"Sometimes. I laughed along."

The air around us seemed to get heavier.

I heard a sound start low in his chest, not a word, and then he caught it and shut it off with visible effort.

"I'm sorry," he said, and his voice had gone rough. "It isn't your fault. I need a moment."

He took his arm away from me and stepped off the path.

He stood with his back turned and his hands braced on a fir trunk, breathing slowly through his nose.

I watched the bark crack under his fingers.

It took him about a minute.

When he came back his eyes were green again, and his face was calm.

"I'll take you to your brother's," he said. "I'll carry you. Say no and I'll walk beside you."

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