"I don't accept you" — he shouted it in front of everyone novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Moon Hall

In front of the whole pack Imogen repeats the rejection and names what Jasper said for four years. Dunstan disowns her until the full moon, and Ezra offers her his hospitality as a guest, not a mate.

Celia left the way she had come, out the window and across the porch roof.

Ten minutes later my father unlocked the door.

"Moon Hall," he said. "The whole pack is waiting. You'll stand in front of them and you will fix this."

He had changed into a black jacket.

He did not look at my cheek.

Clover was in the hallway behind him with her arms crossed.

She had slipped in through the kitchen and nobody had stopped her.

"I'm walking her in," she said.

"You will not speak," my father told her.

"Watch me."

Moon Hall was full.

Every bench held a Redwood wolf and every wall held another one standing.

The big round window above the dais let the early moon fall straight onto the stone floor.

The Beta stood on the left with his wife.

Jasper lay on a cot at their feet with a wet cloth on his forehead and his eyes half open.

He looked gray.

Celia knelt beside him, holding his hand.

When I came in she looked up and her face crumpled, and she buried it in his shoulder.

A woman near the front said, "Poor thing," and she did not mean me.

The old Seer sat on her stool at the edge of the dais, a small woman with milky eyes.

She had witnessed the naming of every wolf in this pack for sixty years.

My father went up the steps.

"Pack of Redwood," he said. "My younger daughter turned eighteen this morning and has made a mistake. She will correct it."

He turned to me.

"Imogen. Come here."

I walked up the steps on my own.

My legs shook and I kept them moving.

Clover stayed at the bottom, phone in her pocket now, one fist clenched.

"Say it," my father murmured. "Say you spoke in fear. The Beta has agreed to forget it."

"I'm not afraid," I said.

The Beta spoke before my father could.

"My son is dying," he said. "He has not eaten since noon. His wolf will not answer him. Girl, you did this."

"I did what he did to me, one minute later."

A murmur ran around the hall.

"He did not mean it," the Beta said.

"He shouted it in front of two hundred people."

"He was shocked. You were already cruel to him all your life."

My head came up.

"I was cruel?"

"You looked at him," the Beta said, "with those eyes. As if you hated us."

The hall went quiet.

I understood then what kind of room this was.

It was the kind where my black hair counted against me.

I turned to the pack.

"For four years," I said, "Jasper has stood in this hall and at my father's table and said the same thing every time I walked in."

My voice shook, and I let it.

"He said my hair was a stain. He said my skin was a stain. He said my mother should have been ashamed to bring me into this family."

Heads turned.

Some of them had been at that table.

Jasper had closed his eyes.

"I never answered him," I said. "I stayed quiet because he was my sister's boyfriend and I wanted peace. Today the Moon told me he was my mate, and he stood in the lot and shouted that he didn't accept me."

I looked at the Seer.

"I'd like the words recorded, in front of the Moon."

The Seer lifted her chin.

"The Moon is listening, child."

I took a breath.

I spoke the old formula clearly, slowly, every word.

"I, Imogen Harwick, reject Jasper Penhallow as my mate. I refuse the bond and I give back the scent. Let the Moon witness that he refused first."

The Seer struck her staff once on the stone.

"It is recorded," she said.

A cry went up from the Beta's wife.

Jasper's eyes flew open.

He tried to sit up.

"Imogen," he rasped. "Please. Just listen."

Celia pressed her hand on his chest and he fell back.

"Don't," she whispered. "You'll hurt yourself."

My father stepped between me and the cot.

His voice came out cold enough to carry to the back wall.

"Then you have chosen. Hear me, Redwood. A daughter who dishonors a Penhallow dishonors the Harwick hearth. Imogen has no place under my roof until she retracts."

"Dunstan," someone breathed.

"She has until the full moon," he said. "Until then she is not my daughter. She has no food, no bed and no name at this house."

He said it to the whole hall.

I had known he might say it.

Hearing it in front of two hundred wolves was different.

For a moment I stood there and could not move.

Clover made a furious sound at the foot of the steps.

My sister, still holding Jasper's hand, looked at me over his shoulder.

She was not crying.

She gave me a very small, very gentle smile.

That was when the hall doors opened.

A cold wind came through, and with it cedar and river stone.

Every head turned.

Ezra Duncannon walked up the center aisle alone, hands in his jacket pockets, past two hundred Redwood wolves who did not dare look at him.

He climbed the steps and stopped beside me.

He did not touch me.

"Alpha Duncannon," my father said. "This is a pack matter."

"Then I'll be brief."

He looked at the Seer.

"Is a wolf of eighteen without a roof protected by pack law while she is thrown out?"

The Seer's milky eyes moved to my father and stayed there.

"She is," she said slowly. "If another wolf offers hospitality."

"Then I'm offering it," Ezra said. "Imogen Harwick is my guest at Black Fork for as long as she wants it."

He turned to face me.

"Not my mate. Not my property. My guest."

Nobody in the hall breathed.

Tilda lifted her head inside me.

"Say yes, Imogen," Clover shouted from below. "Say yes!"

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

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