He Put His Ex First, So I Found My True Mate novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Portia's Price

"No," Conal said, and began to close the door.

"Wait." I put my hand on the wood. "Let her talk."

Portia stood on the step with her coat clutched shut and her blond twist coming loose.

The soft, grateful face she wore on the lawn was gone.

"Five minutes," I said. "On the porch."

"That's fair."

"It's not fair. It's five minutes."

We sat on the cold boards with Conal standing behind me, his arms folded.

Portia looked at her hands.

"Gisela keeps the registry," she said. "My deregistration went through two years ago, and since then the twins' standing in the pack hangs on her signature."

"Meaning what?"

"Meaning she can strike them from the Lowell line whenever she likes."

Her voice cracked.

"They'd be wolves with no house. She reminded me again after your slideshow."

"You pressed your thumb into the wax," I said.

"I did."

"You took my room and called it a prize."

"I did that too."

"And you thanked me for organizing it. Out loud. With your hand on my arm."

Portia flinched, and I let her.

"I told myself you'd keep your ring, and I'd keep my children," she said.

"I told myself nobody got hurt."

"I got hurt, Portia. I paid forty-one thousand dollars to be hurt."

"I know."

"Why are you here?"

"Because last night Gisela told me the twins won't sit at Sunday's table unless I behave."

She took a ragged breath.

"She said children can be sent away to stay with cousins. For years."

Conal made a low sound behind me.

"Where is the black envelope?" he asked.

Portia looked up at him and then at me, and answered me.

"Gisela moved it Saturday," she said. "It's in the Stone's hollow, in the frame, under a flat rock at the back. Two guards watch it in shifts. Wednesday night she dines with the founders at the inn, and one of the guards goes with her."

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