I Bore His Heirs, Then I Vanished novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Sanctuary

Greywater's Alpha gives Morven sanctuary under an old law, and when Aldric brings a warband to the river the rejected bond burns them both, until the Duskmoor bell rings and the Luna puts a bounty on the baby.

Torin Garrow got off his horse and took off his coat before I could say a word.

He wrapped it around Linnet and me together, and he did not ask me to explain the blood.

"I need sanctuary," I said. My teeth were chattering. "Please. Just for tonight."

"My pack has a law about that mark," he said. "Anyone who wears it and asks for shelter gets it. Nobody can take her out of Greywater."

"She's not a wolf yet. She's three hours old."

"Then she's the youngest guest we've ever had."

He lifted me onto his saddle himself and walked beside the horse the whole way.

His hall stood a mile up the bank, built of river stone and pine.

A Greywater healer met us at the door, took one look at me and sent three women running for water and blankets.

Nobody took my daughter from my arms.

The healer asked if she could check the baby, and she waited until I nodded.

Linnet slept through all of it with her white lock drying against her forehead.

I slept too, for what felt like a minute.

A horn woke me in the afternoon.

Torin was standing at my window with his arms folded.

"Duskmoor has put a warband on the east bank," he said. "Forty wolves. Your Alpha is with them."

"He is not my Alpha."

"Then he's very upset about it."

I walked down to the river in borrowed boots with Linnet inside my coat.

Torin walked a step behind me and did not try to stop me.

The Duskmoor wolves lined the far bank in a long gray row.

Aldric stood alone in front of them, bare to the waist, with his hands open at his sides.

He had left his weapons on the ground. I noticed that and did not want to.

The river ran thirty feet wide between us.

He looked ten years older than he had that morning.

"Morven." His voice carried over the water. "Bring her home."

"Which one?"

His jaw moved. "Linnet is the Luna's daughter. She belongs in the pack house."

"She is mine," I said. "I carried her for ten months while you ate breakfast."

"You agreed."

"I agreed to a second child. I did not agree to never touch her."

A wolf in the line shifted its feet. Several of his warriors looked at the ground.

Aldric took one step into the shallows.

The moment his boot touched the water, the rejection flared between us.

I felt it in my ribs first, then my throat, then behind my eyes.

On the far bank his knees gave. He caught himself with one hand in the mud.

I did not fall. I had been hurt for seven years, and I had practice.

Torin's hand closed on my elbow, steadying me.

"You can't cross," he said to Aldric, loud enough for both banks. "The law of the water is older than either of us. Armed or not, you stay on your side."

"I only want my daughter."

"And I want my son," I said.

Aldric lifted his head. His eyes were red.

"Rowan stays in Duskmoor. That was the arrangement."

"That was your arrangement."

"He is the heir."

"He is a four-year-old boy who thinks I'm the nurse."

Nobody on either bank said anything.

"Morven," Aldric said, lower. "Whatever you think I am, you know I would never hurt you."

I laughed. It came out ugly.

"You walked past me on the floor the night he was born. I was bleeding on the stones and you stepped over my hand."

His face went gray.

"I was never your mate, Aldric. I was borrowed."

He opened his mouth.

Behind him, high up the hill, the Duskmoor bell began to ring.

It was the long slow toll the pack used for a death or a war.

Every wolf on the east bank turned to look.

A rider came down the slope at a gallop with a white cloth tied to his spear.

He did not stop at Aldric. He rode straight to the edge of the water and shouted across it in the Luna's name.

"By order of the Luna of Duskmoor, Morven Teasdale has stolen the heir of the pack!"

The whole east bank heard him.

"Every wolf in every territory is called to bring her back. The price is one hundred thousand in gold, and the child must come back unharmed."

Torin's hand tightened on my elbow.

"Unharmed," he said quietly, "is the part about her. Not about you."

Nobody in Duskmoor had ever put a price on me. They had put one on my daughter in the first hour of her life.

The Greywater wolves behind us started to growl, low and steady.

Torin lifted two fingers, and they stopped.

I looked at Aldric.

He had not given that order. I could see it in his face.

He had not stopped it either.

← Chapter 1 · All chapters · Chapter 3 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend