Chapter 14: The Elder's House

Torin's POV

I let them drive away.

It was the hardest thing I have done as Alpha, and nobody saw it but a healer's chickens.

I stood in her yard until the sound of the truck was gone.

Then my chest went tight, and I understood what the tightness was.

It was a mile of road between us, and then two, and with each one something in me pulled harder toward the south.

My phone buzzed against my ribs.

It was a photograph, with no message under it, from a number I had saved as Ingrid.

Two children asleep in the lodge bedroom.

A rabbit between them.

The picture had been taken through the window glass.

A second text came a minute later.

Keep your father away from my children.

I was in my car before I had finished reading it.

My father's house stands on the north ridge, a long timber hall with the pack's carved door.

It was Thursday, which meant the Elder's table, and when I came in through the front hall there were eleven people eating at it.

The Beta sat at my father's right hand.

Two of my father's guards stood against the far wall.

The grey-bearded elder had a glass of wine halfway to his mouth.

Briony was coming down the stairs, with her coat over her arm and her pale gold bracelet catching the light.

She saw me and stopped on the fourth step.

"Torin," she said, and her smile went on.

"I was only bringing your father his tea."

"Go home, Briony."

"Darling, you look unwell."

"Go home."

She went.

She walked past me with her head high and her bracelet turning once, twice, on her wrist.

I did not watch her leave, because my father was already rising from his chair.

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