He Rejected Me Out Loud and Kept Other Women, So I Never Answered novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: I Answer

Rhiannon's POV

I said it on the second Sunday of December, in the church, with the tide-book open on the altar.

Hester had asked me to choose the room.

She had said the old law did not care where a wolf stood when she answered, only that the pack could hear.

I had thought about the fish-house loft, where I had been priced, and the ferry deck, where I had worked.

I chose the church because it was the one room on the island that had never been used against me.

By four in the afternoon the pews were full.

I had not asked a soul.

They had come in their good coats with their hats in their hands, and Hester had put out every lamp.

The Alpha stood at the back by the door.

I had told him to.

I had told him three feet, and he had kept it.

I walked up the aisle in my work jacket.

I had washed my hair and pinned up my braid, and I had not worn my mother's dress.

I stopped at the altar and laid my palm on the tide-book beside the old black ink.

The whole church was silent.

"I was rejected on the twenty-fourth of October in the fish-house loft," I said.

My voice carried to the doors.

"I was given against a note by my father, and refused by the Alpha in front of two hundred wolves. A woman laughed. I stood there and I did not answer."

Nobody moved.

"I'd like to tell you why."

I looked down the aisle.

He stood at the back with his hat in both hands and his face open.

"It wasn't pride," I said. "I thought it was. I thought, I'll not give them the satisfaction. But it was the only thing I owned. A wolf who won't say the words back is a wolf who still has a choice. I'd lost everything else that day. I'd not lose that."

My throat was tight.

"I've kept it two months. It held up this pack's Alpha while I wasn't looking. It cost him a good deal, and it cost me. He's paid what he owed, in the book and in front of you, and I believe him."

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