Mateo Santiago novel · Chapter 22 of 24
Chapter 22: The Seat
Two hundred faces waited for me to say something.
I stood in the churchyard in my aunt's coat with my bare feet freezing, and Mateo's jacket over the top of it.
My wolf stayed close under my ribs, pacing an easy circle.
"Alpha," said an old man in the front row.
He said it to me.
Another voice took it up, and another, until the whole of Black Lake was saying it low and ragged across the lime.
"Sofia Maldonado, Alpha."
"Her blood and her wolf."
"Her mother's daughter."
They meant it, and I hated that I felt it in my chest.
For one long breath I stood there and let myself imagine the lodge, the porch, the lake, the light in my mother's window.
Everything I had been raised to want was being held out to me on two hundred open palms.
"No," I said.
A groan ran through the crowd.
"I'm not saying it because I'm afraid," I said.
"I'm saying it because I know what that chair does to a person."
"I watched it for twenty-five years."
"It made a man who could look at his dying wife and call it rogues."
"I don't want a seat that has to be warmed with a voice."
I looked across the yard to my aunt.
She stood small and straight at the edge of the crowd, leaning on her cane that she did not need.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of Mateo Santiago are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
← Chapter 21 · All chapters · Chapter 23 →
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