The Rejected Mate novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Cord

Caelen Braithwaite spent the night on the floor of the east room with his forehead against the cold boards.

The fever had come back by midnight.

It did not burn the way it had in the cellar.

It dragged.

Somewhere below the house a man was hauling on the line.

He knew exactly where she was now.

At dawn his mother came in carrying a tray, and the guard on the door let her pass because nobody on earth had ever told Odette Braithwaite no.

She set down the tray and shut the door.

"The Beta is in the stone cellar," she said quietly. "He was seen passing something to his daughter."

Caelen came up onto his knees.

"Did Father..."

"Your father sent for me. He said the search of a woman was a Luna's business, and he would take my word."

She almost smiled.

"I went to the kennels with a lamp. I turned out her pockets, her boots and her hair. I did not touch her ribs."

"I told my husband she had nothing but a spoon."

Caelen drew a ragged breath, trembling from head to toe.

"He believed you?"

"Twenty-six years, Caelen. He has never once thought I would lie to him. That's the only thing he ever got wrong about me."

She pressed something into his palm.

It was a long iron key, cold and heavy.

"The cell. It was on his own ring. He will not miss it until tonight."

"He's summoned you to the study at nine. I can't come. Go and stand there, and do what you did the last time."

"Last time I ended up in a cellar."

"Last time you didn't know what was underneath," said his mother. "Now you do."

The guard walked him to the study himself.

His father sat behind the big desk with a ledger open and the window at his back.

"Close the door, son."

Caelen closed it.

He stood in the middle of the carpet, in the same place where he had gone down on his knees.

The braided leather cord was on his left wrist, as it had been since his eighteenth birthday. The heir's cord. His father had tied it with his own fingers.

← Chapter 13 · All chapters · Chapter 15 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend