My Pet Sold Me novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: A Security Plan

Dane's POV

I had meant to cut her wrist again.

I put the knife away, but I would not pretend I hadn't drawn it.

When Sable said the word surety, I had understood in one cold second what the clan could do.

They could take Lara out of that hall before dark, and a Concord claim could not be fought with fists.

The only wall I could put around her was the bond itself.

The rite runs both ways, and a holder can take it back.

I had read that too, the night I bought her.

So I had stood up, and my hand had gone to my boot.

I would have crossed the aisle in front of a hundred witnesses and put her wrist under my palm.

I would have done it over her objection, because she would have objected.

Then she said, "Not yet."

She said it without turning her head, and I stayed where I was.

I watched her walk up to a lectern in a denim jacket and read six lines of old paper out loud.

She did not need me to move.

She had never needed me to move.

I had only needed to.

Afterward the hall emptied in a roar, and I stood at the end of the aisle with the blade half out and my own hand shaking on it.

I saw her see it.

I pushed it down into the boot, and I walked out the side door ahead of her, because I did not trust my face.

The gravel lot behind the grange was full of trucks.

My sentry had brought my truck around.

I leaned on the fender and looked at the field behind the hall until I heard the door.

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