Forced To Bear The Alpha's Son novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: Mine to Choose
Matvei did not flinch.
"I know," he said. "Name the price."
"It's a long list."
"I have time."
I laid the pass on the desk, next to the satchel and the key.
"You owe me a sister," I said.
"Yes."
"You owe me eight years of believing in a stone over an empty hole."
"Yes."
"You owe me nine days of running, a knee that aches in the rain, and a night in your dungeon with your claw at my throat."
"Yes."
"You pay it here."
"Where?"
"At your table. Every night. With two boys and a woman who will ask you anything she likes, and you'll answer her, and you won't keep a single reason for later."
His hands came out from behind his back.
They were shaking, openly now.
"That is not a price," he said hoarsely. "That is a gift."
"Then you've been undercharged all your life." I picked up the pass again. "And one more thing."
"Say it."
I crossed to the hearth, where the fire was low, and I held the paper by its gold seal.
"This was never freedom," I said. "It was a door somebody else built, and I'm tired of doors."
I dropped it in the coals.
The seal ran first. Then the lords' signatures curled, brown, and went black.
Matvei watched it burn.
He didn't move until it was ash.
"Noon," I said. "The hall. I want the whole pack there."
He did not ask why.
The hall was packed by noon, and the snow was still coming down on the roof.
Anselm stood at the dais with the baby in his arms.
The cook was beside him, weeping into her apron and denying it.
Tobin sat in the front row in the blue coat, swinging his legs.
The thin grey woman sat among the elders, and the old man sat beside her, silent.
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