Mated to the Beast of the Wasteland novel · Chapter 21 of 32

Chapter 21: Not Wards

I read the hand-written line twice.

Then I folded the paper in half and held it out to Brand.

He read it. His jaw moved.

"Seven days," he said.

"Seven days."

"I'll go to the Gate tonight and..."

"No." I caught his wrist. "You'll go in seven days. With me. With them."

He stared at me.

"You want to take them to the Gate."

"I want to take them to the Gate and walk them back out again. In front of everybody."

Gran made a sound from her stool. It might have been a laugh.

"She's going to need the tin," Gran said. "From under the porch."

On the seventh day I could stand for an hour at a time.

That was enough.

Sable drove. I sat in the cab with our daughter wrapped against my chest in a sling Gran had knotted.

Brand rode in the back with our son inside his jacket, one big hand over the small scaled arm.

The old salvage man and half the crew came behind us in the other truck.

So did the boy from the collars. He wouldn't stay home.

The Gate yard was full when we pulled in.

Word had gone ahead. Traders and drivers lined the fence, Haven guards off shift, crews from other towns.

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