Half Were Mine novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: The Roster Books

Torsten's POV

I kept the old roster books in a steel cabinet behind my desk, and I had never opened them.

That night I took out four years of them and laid them across the long table.

The office was dark except for the lamp. The desk held a silver frame, and I did not look at it.

Ten years ago I was twenty-five and the new Alpha of a pack that did not trust me yet.

I stood at the back of a boundary fire with my arms crossed, bored and tired.

A girl threw her head back and laughed at something her brother said.

I had never smelled anything like her.

My wolf did not howl. He went silent, and then he took one step forward in my head and sat down, and stayed there.

Nineteen, I thought. She's nineteen, and she's visiting.

I did not speak to her.

I let her go home to the far north.

I told Cormac, my best patrol runner, that she was welcome to join us whenever she liked, and nothing more.

I did not pressure her. I never pressed anyone.

I made that a rule for the whole pack. A wolf who has chosen is never pursued by the Alpha, and I wrote it into my own conduct first.

Six years later Cormac said his sister was coming south.

I stood at my office window the day she arrived and watched her cross the compound with her duffel bag. My hands were not steady.

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