A Pack of Their Own novel · Chapter 20 of 32

Chapter 20: Mate

Winona's POV

The old paper took the fire at one corner and curled.

Roark held it by the other end. The flames climbed toward his fingers, and he did not let go until the last red seal had blackened.

Then he opened his hand over the hearth, and the ash fell.

The hall stayed silent.

Two hundred people stood against the walls and looked at the fireplace. The glass crunched under a hunter's boot as he stepped back.

I stood in the middle of the floor with my hands still half fur and my breath sawing in and out.

I had waited for this since a doorway in the Moon Rise infirmary.

I had waited for the moment he looked at the law and looked at me and picked the law.

I had been so sure of it that I had kept part of myself shut to him.

That part was open now, and all I could do was stare at him.

He had burned his father's whole life with his bare hand.

Alpha Eskildsen had not moved.

His face was gray. Glass lay at his feet, and his empty hand was still held out toward the case.

"You have no idea what you've done," he said.

"I know exactly," Roark said.

"The pack will not follow a man who burns the law."

"Then let them say so."

Roark turned and looked down the ranks.

Nobody said anything. A woman near the front, gray-haired and plain, had a hand pressed over her mouth. One of the hunters set his rifle down on the floor very gently.

"You are no son of mine," Alpha Eskildsen said.

"Yes, sir," Roark said. His voice shook for the first time. "I know. I'm sorry for it."

He crossed the floor to me and took my hand, the furred one, and did not flinch.

"Teddy," he said.

"Right here." Teddy was already at his shoulder, rubbing his ribs where a hunter's rifle butt had caught him. "Can we please leave before somebody remembers they have a grudge?"

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