I Don't Come Back to My Alpha Again novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Gate
Joelle walks out of the forbidden grounds after five years, takes her husband's bragging about his mistress without a flicker, and refuses his oath in front of the Pack House staff, then sees Coral's arms: no silver scars at all.
The iron gates of the forbidden grounds screamed on their hinges and swung open.
I walked through them for the first time in five years.
The afternoon sun hit me.
Five years of cave dark had done something to my eyes, and I had to stop and shade them with my hand.
Behind me, up on the rocks, the others were watching.
Rhoda stood at the front with her white braid over her shoulder.
"Don't you dare look back, girl," she called.
So I didn't.
Beck Lassiter was at the gate wheel, cranking it open with both arms.
For five years I had only known him as a voice in the dark.
He didn't look at me.
Wardens weren't allowed to.
But as I passed him he said, very low, "Rook to e4."
It was the move he'd been too scared to make for a month.
I almost smiled.
Then I saw the black SUV parked on the gravel.
My husband was leaning against the hood with his ankles crossed.
Ansel Crowe. Alpha of the Red Moon Pack.
He looked me up and down, slowly.
"God, Joelle," he said. "You look like something the river spat out."
I didn't answer.
"I had money on the rogues getting you before your time was up." He folded his big arms. "You never did know when to quit."
"Unlock the car," I said.
He didn't move.
He smiled and took one step closer.
"You missed a lot while you were in there. Coral never left my side. Not one day in five years. Not one night."
I put my left hand over my right arm and pressed hard.
Two days ago a rogue had come at me in the dark by the boundary rocks.
It was one of the old exiles, the ones who forget how to be people.
I broke its neck, but not before it got its teeth into my arm.
The bite was soaking through my shirt again.
"She's grown into herself, you know," Ansel said. He was watching my face the whole time. "Not a mark on her now. And in bed? She's something else. She wants it in ways you never once did."
Five years ago, I would have gone for his throat.
I was the Alpha's only daughter then.
I had never been told no in my life.
I would have called my wolf and torn up the gravel and taken his face off in front of the gate.
I let my eyes drop to his shoes instead.
They were new. Italian. Polished like mirrors.
"Understood," I said.
His jaw went tight. "What?"
"I said I understand." My voice was flat. "Can we go? I'm bleeding on your gravel."
He stared at me.
He'd driven all the way up here for a scene, and I hadn't given him one.
He yanked the passenger door open. "Get in."
Nobody said a word for twenty miles.
I sat with my arm tucked against my side so the bumps wouldn't open it wider.
The valley went by outside.
The lake. The pines. The pack town with its one main street.
It all looked the same, and nothing did.
Ansel pulled up in front of the Pack House and killed the engine.
"Tobin's inside," he said. "No scenes."
"He's my son."
"He's fifteen." He didn't even turn his head. "He remembers what you did to her."
I opened the door and got out.
The Pack House was still white.
The same tall pillars, the same double oak doors my father had carved the moon into.
Inside, it smelled of pine cleaner and lemon polish.
Five years in a cave, and that smell almost put me on my knees.
The staff were lined up in the front hall.
Ansel had wanted an audience after all.
He put a hand on the small of my back and steered me in front of them.
I moved away from it.
"Everyone," he said in his big Alpha voice. "My wife is home."
Nobody clapped.
A girl from the kitchen stared at my hair. I had cut it with a knife in the caves, and it showed.
"In thirty days the Moon Council comes for the Hunter's Moon," Ansel said. "Joelle will stand up in front of them and swear the Dacey oath to me. Then she'll live very quietly in the east wing. Isn't that right, sweetheart?"
Every eye in the hall turned to me.
"No," I said.
The silence went all the way up the stairs.
Ansel laughed, like I'd made a joke.
"She's tired. She doesn't know what she's saying."
"I know exactly what I'm saying." I looked at the staff, one face at a time. "I'm not swearing anything to you. Not in thirty days. Not ever."
Somebody's breath caught.
Then I heard footsteps on the stairs.
My son came down them.
He was so tall.
The last time I saw him, he came up to my chest. Now he was taller than me, all elbows, with Ansel's dark hair and my pale gray eyes.
He had a basketball under his arm.
Coral Faulk walked down beside him, one step behind.
"Tobin," I said.
My voice broke on it. I couldn't stop it.
He stopped three stairs above me and looked at me.
"You should've stayed in there," he said.
Coral touched his shoulder. "Oh, honey. Don't."
Then she lifted both arms and pulled him into a hug.
She was wearing a sleeveless dress.
I stared at her arms.
Five years ago, the council had been told my claws were dipped in silver.
The wounds were on both her arms and both her shoulders.
My father carried one silver scar on his forearm for thirty years, until the day he died.
Silver scars never heal.
Coral's skin was perfect.
There wasn't a single mark on her.
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