Chapter 12: Eleven Forty-Eight

I dressed quickly and met them in the study.

Corwin had pulled on a shirt and put the lamp on.

The old woman sat in his big leather chair with both hands folded on her cane.

Odette stood behind her with a hand on her shoulder.

The woman's face was thin and brown with age, and her eyes were sharp.

"This is the midwife who delivered us," Odette said. "She lives an hour north of Pinewatch."

She bit her lip.

"Mom stopped using her before I could remember."

"I delivered you both in the Alpha's house," the old woman said. "On the night of October the ninth. It stormed."

Her voice was dry and steady.

"I have waited eighteen years to say this to somebody who is not afraid of your mother."

I sat down on the edge of the couch, where I had lain the night before.

Corwin came and stood behind me, close enough that I felt him there.

"Say it," I said.

"You were born first."

The study did not move.

"At eleven forty-eight," the midwife said. "Your sister came eleven minutes later, at eleven fifty-nine."

She did not blink.

"I remember because the clock hung opposite the bed, and your mother watched it through the whole birth."

"That can't be," Odette said, from behind her. "My birth certificate says I'm first."

"Because your mother had me write it that way."

The old woman put her hand in her shawl and drew out a small cloth-bound book.

Its cover was spotted with age.

Keep reading free with an account. Start They Forgot My Awakening, So I Took the Pack from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.