Chapter 20: Unbound

I didn't say it on the ridge.

I said, "Walk beside me," and we went down the path in the dark with a foot of cold air between us.

At the white fence post he stopped, and so did I.

"Goodnight, Ivy," he said.

"Goodnight."

I went in and lay in Hazel's spare bed with my bandaged hand on my chest.

There was nothing in my head but my own thoughts.

I had expected the quiet to hurt.

Instead it was so large and so plain that I lay awake for an hour, listening to it.

In the morning Hazel stood at the stove frying eggs.

"There's a man out at the fence," she said, without turning around.

"He went home."

"He did not."

I went to the window.

Ronan was at the white post, in yesterday's clothes, with his back against it and his arms folded.

A thermos sat in the grass beside him.

I put on my father's mended coat and went out.

The grass was white with frost, and my breath showed.

He straightened when he saw me and pushed off the post.

"Morning," he said.

"Have you been here all night?"

"Most of it."

"Why?"

"You said walk beside you. You didn't say when to stop."

"Ronan, it's thirty degrees."

"I had a thermos."

"You had a thermos," I said.

"It was a good thermos."

I laughed.

It came out of me before I could stop it, high and startled, and he looked so pleased about it that I laughed again.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Unbonding the Ruthless Alpha from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.