Chapter 5: The Yard

On the first night I slept with a chair under the door handle, though the door had no lock.

I woke in the dark with my wolf standing up inside me.

She had never woken me before.

Something was coming up the tower stairs in the dark, very quietly.

I smelled Ravenhold before I heard anything. Horse sweat, tallow, and the particular hair oil Corwin used.

Three men. All of them were trying not to breathe.

I thought about the Stonefell sentries, and about how they would have been told to let the Alpha's guest sleep.

Then I thought about sanctuary, which Torin had promised to honour for three nights.

He had lasted until the first dark.

The chair slid back an inch as someone leaned on the door.

I did not wait for the hinges.

I let the wolf out, and the shirt tore across my back.

When the door burst in, I was already across the room and in the air.

I hit the first man in the chest and took him down with my teeth in his sleeve.

He yelled.

The second swung a sack over my head, and silver threads were woven through the cloth.

It burned across my muzzle and I screamed, though what came out was a wolf's scream.

I threw my head and the sack tore.

The third man was Corwin, with a coil of silver chain in his good hand.

"Take her down," he said. "Quick. Before the Warden's dogs wake."

He swung the chain at my legs.

I jumped it and landed on the stairs below him.

I ran down, and they came after me.

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Mate Gave My Wolf to His Mistress from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.