Unbonding the Ruthless Alpha novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: Her Father's Letter

I read my father's letter at Hazel's kitchen table at two in the morning.

Hazel sat across from me with her glasses on her head and didn't say a word.

The letter was one page, in the square hand that had signed my school forms.

"Ivy. If you're reading this, Godfrey has come for you, and I was right to be afraid."

"The order to pull us off the north ridge came from Godfrey. I read it three times. I asked him why. He said the ridge was no longer ours to hold, and I would obey."

"I obeyed. Joel Hargrove went up alone to warn us. I found him at first light."

I put my hand over my mouth and kept reading.

"That night Godfrey told me that if I ever spoke, you would pay for it. He said he could see to it you never walked safe on this land."

"So I took the blame. It was the only price he would take for you."

"When I said let it lie, I meant don't dig. I never meant forgive him."

"I don't know what he sold. I know he met a rogue leader at the north fence twice that month."

"You were never anyone's debt. You were my daughter. Dad."

Hazel pushed a mug of tea across the table.

I let it go cold.

"He was protecting me," I said.

"He was," Hazel said. "From a man who poured you wine."

At dawn the whole pack stood on the grass in front of the pack hall.

There were about a hundred of them, in coats, with their breath showing.

Ronan stood on the top step with the Council witness's copy of the order in his hand.

He had not slept either.

I stood at the bottom of the steps with Hazel, in my father's coat, and he found me in the crowd before he began.

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