The Alpha Captain's Secret Baby novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: Nothing But a Wolf

Rhys's POV

I put my son into Willa's arms, and then I walked to the dais.

The Hall was a hundred backs and a woman in black sobbing in front of the third veil.

I had spent six years thinking this room belonged to me.

It had been Pia's all along, and I had never once asked her why.

"Alpha," my father said from the doorway.

"Not yet."

I stopped in front of the Alpha's chair.

The seat was stone, worn smooth by forty Alphas, and the Satterthwaite crest was cut into its back.

Pia had left the ring on the arm of it.

She must have set it down when she brought my son into the Hall, so the elders could see it.

I picked it up.

It was heavier than I remembered.

"Elders of the Satterthwaite pack," I said, and every back stiffened. "Turn and hear me, or don't. I'll say it either way."

Slowly, one by one, they turned.

The elder with the braid turned last.

"Six years ago I bit the wrong woman," I said. "I did it in the dark, believing she was my mate. The bite held, and the law holds it. That is the one thing I was taught that I can use now."

I held the ring up so they could all see it.

"A claim cannot be undone while both live," I said, "unless the claimer lays down the seat before the pack."

A murmur went round the Hall.

"Don't," Pia whispered.

I did not look at her.

"I lay down the Alpha seat," I said. "I lay down the ring, and the house on the ridge, and the title. I stand here as a wolf and nothing else, and I ask the Hall to cut the claim."

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