My Mate Gave My Wolf to His Mistress novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Loosened Bolts

The altar bolts come out of the stone, Hesper shifts for the first time in seven years and bites Corwin, and Bram carries her out under council law as Torin calls her home.

The first hook was longer than my forearm, and the point had a barb on it.

Corwin held it up so the elders could see it.

Nobody on the stone benches moved.

Corwin was the man who had carried my trunk into Ravenhold seven years ago and called me Luna ever since.

He would not meet my eyes now either.

"Hold her shoulders," Torin told two of the guards.

They came up on either side of the altar and pressed me down against the slab.

The stone was so cold it took my breath.

Corwin set the barb under my collarbone.

I turned my wrists in the chains and felt the ring bolts under the altar shift.

They shifted again. Maud had not been counting them.

She had been loosening them.

I pulled with everything I had, and both bolts came out of the stone with a crack.

The chains swung free with the rings still in them, and I swung them into the guard on my left.

He went down against the bench.

The silver ate through the skin of my wrists, and I did not care.

For seven years I had kept my wolf shut inside me, because Torin said a Luna's wolf stays home.

I opened the door and let her out.

It hurt more than the chains did. Bone moved, my dress split down the back, and the cold went out of the room.

Then I was on four paws on the altar with my silver-grey fur standing up, and a white forepaw I had not seen in seven years.

Torin said my name.

Not Lena.

"Hesper."

Corwin jabbed the hook at me.

I caught his arm in my teeth and shook until he let go of it.

He screamed, and the hook rang on the floor.

The second guard grabbed a fistful of my scruff, and a heavy hand closed over his wrist.

Bram Askew had come through the benches without anyone seeing.

He twisted the guard's arm back and put him on the floor with one hand.

"Council law," he said to the room, loudly. "No hand is raised against a wolf that has shifted before witnesses until the council rules."

Nobody had said that law aloud in a hundred years.

The eldest half rose. "The Warden is correct."

"Then the council rules she is an outlaw," Torin said. "And takes the penalty."

"The council has not ruled anything," said the eldest. He sounded old and shaken. "We will rule at the Moot."

"Three nights from now."

"She leaves this chamber under guard tonight."

"Under mine," said Bram.

He pulled off his travelling coat and threw it over my back.

Torin took a step toward me.

He looked tired. For a moment it was the face he wore when I had a fever, and he sat by the bed.

"Lena, you're frightened," he said. "You don't know what you're saying. Come back to the house with me and we'll sort this out quietly."

I had slept next to that voice for seven years.

I bared my teeth at it, and Torin smiled.

"You will come home," he said. "You always do."

My mate-mark was cold under Bram's coat, and the cold made me feel sick.

I did not know why he was so sure of me.

I only knew that I was not going to wait to find out.

I jumped off the altar and ran for the stairs.

Two Ravenhold guards blocked the doorway at the top.

Bram came up the steps behind me, still in his human shape, and he did not slow down.

He lowered his shoulder and hit them both at once.

They went into the wall.

He caught my scruff in one hand, gently, and steered me through the chapel.

The doors at the far end opened onto a courtyard, and the night air smelled of frost.

Behind us the chamber filled with shouting.

Torin's voice rose over it. "Close the gates!"

A bell began to ring.

A grey horse stood at the courtyard post with its saddle on, its head thrown up.

Bram swung up on it in one move.

He leaned down and looked me in the eye. "I can't carry a wolf and fight at the gate, so I need you on your feet."

"Run beside me, and don't stop for anything."

"Stonefell is two hours north."

I ran.

Behind us the gates were swinging shut, and the guards were shouting my name.

Not Lena. Hesper.

Seven years of hiding, and the whole keep knew my name.

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