My Panther Mate & Our Little Cub novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Mama

"Corina," I said.

It came out small in that wrecked hall, with lamp oil dripping and a hundred people breathing.

I tried again, louder.

I said it a third time, and it stopped sounding borrowed.

The scribe looked up from his wax tablet.

The clan said nothing, because they didn't know what to do with a name that wasn't the one they had given me.

Darek smiled.

It was the first full smile I had ever seen on him, and it cracked his scarred face in half.

"Corina," he said, as if tasting it.

The gold on my wrist flickered once.

Then Hesper was hauling him to his feet, scolding.

I meant to restitch him in a proper chair if I had to carry him.

The Marrow den had a door again by dusk.

Two hunters had hung it, wordlessly, and left a basket of bread on the sill.

Tuck was asleep at Hesper's, a honey cake in each fist.

I sewed the shoulder shut by lamplight for the second time, ten new stitches beside the old.

He held perfectly still with his eyes on my face.

"Done," I said, and bit the thread.

"That was the last time I do this."

"Yes."

"Stop agreeing with me."

"I'll try."

I put the needle down.

My hands were steady.

My head was clearer than it had been since I woke in this body.

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