Me - Secret Side Piece?! Hell No! I Took Daughter and Got Far Away from You Asshole! novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: On Loan

Morwen and Lark are shoved behind a curtain in a servant's tunic while the elders visit Pru, and Morwen records Pru's whisper and her own forced apology.

On the third day, I woke with the flask's seal tag still in my fist.

The Dowager's threat sat on my chest like a stone. Keep your mouth shut, or your pup never crosses a Kestrel threshold.

I did not know whose hand had signed the tag, only that someone would come looking for it.

Then the Kestrel elders arrived at the healing den to bless Pru and the heir.

The Dowager did not want me anywhere near them.

Two attendants moved Lark and me into the anteroom of the Alpha suite. It was a narrow room where the servants slept.

A single thin curtain hung between us and the main chamber.

On my cot lay a folded gray tunic.

The badge on the collar read: ON LOAN, DEN ATTENDANT.

Bram stood at the foot of the cot and looked at the wall behind my head.

"The elders are in from the northern dens," he said. "Wear it for today."

I looked at the badge.

"The whole pack already thinks Pru is my Luna," he said. "The memory-keeper is recording the ceremony. If this comes out now, it hurts all of us."

Six years ago, when his trade routes collapsed, he held me all night and said, hold on a little longer. When I climb out of this pit, you will never want for anything.

Now he could afford roses and a private suite for another woman.

For me, he had a servant's tunic.

"Half a day?" I said.

"Half a day." He laid the tunic on my cot. "I know it isn't fair."

When he turned his back, I slid my phone and the seal tag into the tunic's side pocket and pressed record.

Pru came out of the main chamber on the night healer's arm.

She wore a pale blue robe, and her curls were pinned up for the visitors.

She saw the tunic on my cot and her eyes lit up.

"Morwen, please don't be angry with Bram," she said. "He really has no choice."

She leaned down and tucked my blanket.

Her whisper barely reached my ear. "Did you truly believe a mating mark would make him announce you to the pack?"

My fingers shook against the blanket.

Pru straightened and her eyes went wet, aimed at Bram. "Alpha, is she upset?"

Bram looked at me. His eyes were tired and impatient.

I swallowed what I wanted to say.

"No," I said.

"Then let me see the baby," Pru said softly. "She's Bram's blood, after all."

She reached for Lark.

Lark was already sleeping badly. The moment Pru's fingers touched her blanket, she shrieked.

I knocked Pru's hand away before I thought.

Pru staggered back two steps and hit the herb cabinet with her hip.

She clutched her belly. Tears fell at once.

"Morwen, I only wanted to hold her. Why did you push me?"

Bram caught her before she fell. "Morwen."

"I never touched her," I said. "I moved her hand."

Pru shook in his arms. "It's all right. She just gave birth. Her wolf is unsettled. I don't blame her."

The Dowager came through the curtain with her face dark red.

"Pru gave birth the same day, and this creature lays hands on her?"

Behind the curtain, the elders were whispering.

"Is that the one from the common ward?"

"She looks harmless. Vicious, though."

Bram did not hear any of it. He was checking Pru for bruises.

Then he looked up.

"Apologize to Pru," he said.

My eyes burned.

If I fought him now, would he cast out Lark and me for good? Would anyone at all take us in?

I closed my eyes.

"I'm sorry," I said.

The room went quiet.

Pru leaned into Bram's chest.

"That should have come sooner," the Dowager said.

She gestured, and an attendant yanked the curtain shut.

Bram let him.

On the far side of the cloth, the room filled with laughter again.

"Hugo has Bram's jaw."

"Should we start calling her Luna now?"

"Oh, stop," Pru said, laughing.

Bram did not correct them.

I sat on the servant's cot with my daughter and listened to the blessings land on someone else.

My phone buzzed against my leg.

The pack-links had gone out with a formal announcement.

Alpha Bram Kestrel of the Kestrel pack proudly announces the birth of his firstborn son and heir. Omega heiress Prudence Wexley and the pup are in excellent health.

Under it, a hundred packs had congratulated the new Luna.

After the ceremony, Bram came through the curtain with a sealed envelope.

"From my mother," he said. "For the pup."

He set it on my ledge. "I know today was hard. But Pru's wolf is fragile and Hugo is small. Please don't provoke them."

I opened the envelope.

There was a bank card in it, and a handwritten note.

Take the coin and vanish. Do not let your pup grow up knowing what her mother is.

Bram read it over my shoulder. "That isn't from me."

"Then how long do you want me to swallow this?" I asked.

He opened his mouth and shut it.

From the main chamber, Pru began to cry again.

Bram glanced back. "I'll explain everything later."

He left anyway.

I stopped the recording.

Then I took the milk-flask seal tag out of the tunic pocket and turned it over, because I had only looked at one side of it before.

Under the Dowager's seal was a second signature, in ink.

B.K.

It had been written an hour before the flask came into my room.

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