Too Old for My Alpha, Worth the Wait for His Rival novel · Chapter 10 of 24
Chapter 10: What Dora Saw
"Not in front of him," Dora said. "Catriona, please. Alone first."
Alexander looked at me.
I nodded, and he went out through the back door and shut it softly behind him.
Dora gripped the mug.
"The Gathering," she said. "Twenty years ago. You were twenty-six and Braden was courting you. Do you remember what he said when your wolf looked across the field?"
"Nothing. He wasn't there. He was with the Beta."
"He was there." Dora's voice cracked. "He was ten feet behind you. He saw you go still, and he saw the man you looked at."
I sat very slowly.
"You were the one who felt the bond light," Dora said. "Alexander Ashdown felt it too. Everyone near you felt it. And Braden felt his own chance going out like a lamp."
"He challenged him," I said. "I remember. That was allowed, if the fated pair weren't claimed yet. A fight at dawn, at the stones. The women were kept back at the tents. All I saw was men carrying him away."
"They carried him because he couldn't walk," Dora said. "I was the healer's second that morning. I held the bandages."
She took a breath.
"The night before, I went into Braden's tent to bring him a salve for his hands. He had a pair of steel claw-guards laid out on the cot, the ceremonial kind. And he was pouring something into them from a small brown glass bottle."
"What?"
"Wolfsbane," Dora said. "I smelled it. I've smelled it my whole life."
The kitchen was very quiet.
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