Unwanted Shewolf novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The Warden's Oath

On my second night in the Hollow I could not sleep.

I went out behind the house in Rafe's shirt and a pair of Mabel's wool leggings.

A warm spring ran out of the rock there into a stone basin, and steam stood over it in the cold.

Rafe was already sitting on the rim with his sleeves rolled and his boots beside him.

He did not look surprised to see me.

"The bond woke you," he said. "Or I did. I'm sorry."

"It wasn't you."

I sat down on the rock a careful arm's length from him.

For a while we watched the steam.

I had been practicing the sentence all day.

"You let me think I was walking up here to die," I said.

"Yes."

"You stood at the edge of the ring and watched me lie down on that slab. You knew what the Goddess does to a true offering."

"Yes."

"You let me put my hands flat on the stone and say what I wanted out loud to a mountain." My voice was shaking, and I hated it. "And you didn't say a word."

"I couldn't."

"You could have said, Don't be afraid."

He turned his head.

The firelight from the house window caught one side of his face, and I saw how tired he was.

"I'm not going to defend it," he said. "The oath says a Warden tells an offering nothing before the altar, and I kept it, and it was cruel. I would keep it again. If I broke it once, the altar could stop answering for anyone."

"That's not an apology."

"No." His mouth went tight. "The apology is that I stood at the ring and ran through what I'd do if she said no. I'd have torn the slab out of the ground with my hands. I had known you for a day."

I stared at him.

"That's the bond," I said.

"Is it?"

"You told me yourself. It makes you want to be near me."

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