My Alpha's Regret Came Too Late novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Free

Lorcan didn't say anything.

He looked at me for a long moment with the moon on his face.

Then he turned and walked into the pack hall alone, and the door swung shut behind him.

The fire roared on without him.

Somebody started handing out plates, because a feast is a feast.

I stood in the middle of it all and listened.

Nothing.

No hum. No crackle. No voice in the next room.

For a month there had always been a radio on somewhere in my skull.

Now there was only the fire, and the river of talk, and a baby fussing.

My own head.

Just mine.

"Listen," Emrys said.

His hand was still on my back.

"It's quiet," I said.

"Say how it feels," he said, rough.

I thought about it.

"It's so good I could cry."

"Don't," Gwenna said, appearing at my elbow with a plate piled with ham. "The cook will think it's her rolls."

The cook, behind her, said something unprintable.

The widow came and put a slice of her own bread in my hand without a word.

The girl hugged me around the middle, clipboard and all.

I ate the bread.

It was the best thing I'd ever tasted.

Later, when the plates were empty and Ravensworth had started drifting home, Gwenna climbed up on a bench.

"Listen up, Cold Ford," she announced. "Highwater's cook has invited every last one of us to sleep at her place tonight."

The cook looked startled. "I have?"

"You have. Pie for breakfast. Bring your toothbrushes."

"I didn't..."

Gwenna kicked her ankle.

"Oh," said the cook. "Yes. Pie. Everybody."

The widow looked from Gwenna to me to Emrys, and gathered up her children without a single question.

The carpenter winked at me.

The young couple giggled the whole way to the truck.

Then it was just us in the gravel lot, and the moon riding high and white over everything.

Emrys looked down at me.

"Your sergeant is subtle," he said.

"She's a menace."

"She's a good one."

He held out his truck keys.

"You drive," he said. "I don't trust my hands right now."

I drove us home.

Cold Ford was dark except for the porch light the widow had left on.

The river was loud and silver over the stones.

I shut off the engine and we sat there.

Neither of us moved.

"You said you'd wait for a moon," I said.

"I did."

"The moon's up."

He turned his head and looked at me.

"Say it plain," he said. "So I'm sure."

I got out of the truck.

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