Alpha's Regret: The Seventh Time was Forever novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Candles

Dorian orders her back to bed with the Alpha voice and she walks out into the snow with Perrin. The kitchen wolves line the path with the Luna's candles, and behind them the pack house goes dark window by window.

Rosalind was halfway down the porch steps when Dorian's voice came across the snow behind her.

"Rosalind. Get back inside."

It was the Alpha voice, low and flat, the one that made wolves stop mid-step.

It had never worked on a Luna, and it did not work on her.

Perrin felt it, though. His arm went stiff under her hand, and he had to breathe through his teeth before he could move again.

"Keep walking," Rosalind said.

"I am," Perrin said. "Give me a second."

Dorian came down the steps after them in his shirtsleeves.

Two guards stood at the bottom of the stairs. He pointed at Rosalind. "Take the Luna back to her bed."

The guards looked at him, and then at her.

Neither of them moved.

"I gave you an order," Dorian said.

"Yes, Alpha," one of the guards said. He kept his hands at his sides. "She's the Luna, Alpha."

Dorian's jaw tightened, and he caught up with her on the path.

"Where do you think you're going? You can't walk to the gate."

"To my grandmother's mill."

"It's two miles in the snow." His hand closed on her arm. "You can barely breathe."

She looked at his hand.

It was the scarred one, with the pale line across the back.

He had got it reaching for her in a fire, in the first year of their marriage.

She waited until he let go.

"You didn't ask how my lungs are doing for five months," she said. "Don't start asking now."

Her cough took her then, and she bent over it, and Perrin held her up until it was done.

Dorian watched, and he did not touch her again.

"This is a tantrum," he said, quietly, so only the three of them heard it. "Tonight you're angry. In a week you'll be back, and I'll forgive you for tonight."

"You'll forgive me."

"I told the pack you'd accept Pippa. Don't make me a liar in front of three hundred wolves."

Rosalind straightened up.

"Then you'll have to tell them you were wrong," she said.

She walked on, and the path bent down the side of the bluff toward the Gathering Hall.

Perrin walked beside her with his arm out.

The cold got into her chest, and every breath rasped.

She had gone about fifty steps when she saw the first light.

It was a candle in a jar, set on a flat stone beside the path, and a woman in an apron stood next to it with her head bowed.

Rosalind knew her. She was the kitchen wolf who sent up broth every morning and never once asked for thanks.

"Luna," the woman said.

Rosalind stopped. "You shouldn't be out in this."

"We lit it for you tonight like we always do," the woman said. "It was on the long table. We thought you'd want it with you."

She picked up the jar and held it out.

Rosalind took it, and the glass was warm in her hands.

A little farther along there was another candle, and another wolf waiting.

Then another.

An old man from the stables stood by the fence with a candle in each hand. He bowed to her and said nothing.

Two boys from the bakery stood together, holding one between them.

A mother with a baby wrapped against her chest bowed so low that her braid slipped over her shoulder.

By the time the path reached the Gathering Hall there were forty of them, standing on both sides of it with their lights.

Nobody spoke.

Rosalind walked between them with the jar in her hands, and her throat closed up.

She had not known any of them were watching.

She had thought that when she lay in that bed for five months, nobody had been watching.

"They've been asking about you every day," Perrin said, very low. "I told them you needed rest. I told them you'd want them to wait."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because the Alpha forbade any of us to talk to you about the pack." He wiped his face with his sleeve. "I'm sorry. I should have told you anyway."

"You brought the papers," she said. "You kept the pieces. Don't you dare apologize."

He laughed, and it cracked in the middle.

At the foot of the bluff the stable man had a sled, and an old wool blanket folded on it.

"For the Luna," he said.

She sat on it. Perrin took the rope. Two of the bakery boys got behind and pushed.

The wolves with candles fell in at the sides of the sled and walked along with it.

Nobody asked them to, and nobody sent them back.

Halfway down the road Rosalind turned and looked up at the bluff.

The pack house stood above her, every window lit gold against the dark.

As she watched, the window of the great room went black.

Then the kitchen window.

Then the upper hall, one pane at a time.

The wolves who lived in those rooms were coming out through the doors with their coats on.

They followed the lights down the hill.

Dorian stood on the porch in his white shirt, in the cold.

Pippa had her hand on his arm, and he was not looking at her.

He was looking at the dark windows, and then at the line of candles going away down the road.

← Chapter 1 · All chapters · Chapter 3 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend