Chapter 7: The Lodge at Night

Torin's POV

The lodge had two bedrooms upstairs, and I stood in the doorway of the smaller one for an hour.

Jonah slept on his back with one arm flung over his head.

Hazel slept curled on her side, her glasses folded on the nightstand, one hand wrapped around the ear of a stuffed rabbit.

Ingrid had put them to bed herself and told me to stay out.

I stayed out.

I stood in the hall and listened to them breathe.

For two years I had been the Alpha of Hollowbrook, and I had never wanted anything I could not take.

I wanted to go in there and put my hand on their hair.

I did not.

I had spent seven years building a reputation for being cold.

I knew what it did to children.

My phone buzzed on the hall table.

It said Father, and I let it ring four times before I answered.

"You found her," Aldric said.

His voice was the same dry rasp it had been since his illness.

"News travels."

"It's my pack. Everything travels."

I walked to the window at the end of the hall.

Outside, the trees were black and the moon was low.

"I hear she had children," he said.

"Two."

"Yours?"

"Yes."

There was a pause.

"Then you'll do what is necessary," Aldric said.

"Pay her again. Larger. Have the children placed with a family in the east, and have her sign something."

I stared out at the dark.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Bearing the Ruthless Alpha's Twins from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.