Chapter 14: Ten Years of Dead Ends

Rowan's POV

I watched Ruby Kjellberg walk out of Hazel's tent with a full thermos and a pleasant face.

I stood in my own doorway with both hands braced on the pole.

I didn't cross the twenty feet.

The Court had put us on neutral ground.

The Chair would call any Alpha at a woman's tent door after dark an assault.

So I watched the lamp go out and sat down on my cot with my jacket across my knees.

Seven years ago I had smelled wolfsbane on that woman's wrists and said nothing, and I had carried the silence ever since.

The tent flap scratched, and I was on my feet before I knew it.

"Don't get up," Hazel said.

She stood in the opening in a borrowed flannel shirt with her arms wrapped around her ribs.

Her feet were bare on the grass.

"Ruby," I said.

"She wants the Basin." Hazel came in and let the flap fall behind her. "I told her to take her thermos and go to hell."

"And?"

"I didn't sign."

"Good."

My voice came out rough, and she heard it.

"You're shaking," she said.

"Not from cold."

She sat on the end of the cot and looked at her hands.

"I need to say something, and I need you not to be kind about it."

"All right."

"I don't want to be alone tonight." She lifted her chin. "I want to be in here with you."

Something in my chest dropped, and I put it back together.

"Hazel."

"Don't say it's the wolfsbane leaving, or the bond, or the night."

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