They Called My Father a Traitor, So I Learned Every Secret They Buried novel · Chapter 13 of 24
Chapter 13: The Kennel Keeps Score
Hadley put a cracked tin cup into Kestrel's hand. 'Serve Wynn's mother before you ask Wynn for anything.'
Kestrel glanced at the cup, then at Hadley. 'Is this a formal rank established by the patrol?'
'No. It is the rank of the man who has been sleeping in our healer's clinic and still has not learned where the clean water is.'
The kennel room had filled while Breda climbed the watchtower stairs. Twelve patrol wolves crowded around the stove, their stamped tokens hanging from cords or tucked into belts. The marks showed bone, iron, and red wax. They had once looked like emergency claims.
Now they were paying for my mother's coal and room.
Kestrel crossed to the stove. My mother sat near it with a blanket over her knees, accepting a bowl from Dav while pretending not to watch the stranger approach.
He poured water into the cup and held it out to her with both hands.
'You have been instructed,' he said. 'I am told the consequences of disobedience involve public mockery and inferior tea.'
Mother took the cup. 'The tea is already inferior.'
Hadley leaned against the doorframe. 'Good. She can still smell things.'
My mother drank. The room eased around Kestrel by a small degree. He had come into the pack marked as an enemy Alpha, carrying a royal record that could get every person here punished. He stood beside the stove holding a cracked cup while my mother judged the tea.
It was the first useful thing he had done for her without asking permission to save anyone.
Jory sat on an overturned feed crate, his coat open at the back so I could check the dressing beneath it. The wound had pulled slightly when he twisted to watch Kestrel.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of They Called My Father a Traitor, So I Learned Every Secret They Buried are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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