Chapter 5: Nine Words at Breakfast

Breakfast was served in the great hall at eight, and the whole pack came.

Nobody had ordered them to. Word had gone round the lodge faster than coffee.

Corwin walked in beside me with his hand at my back.

Alaric was already seated at the head of the table, grey and silent, with a blanket over his knees.

Beatrix poured tea at his elbow.

She looked up as we reached our chairs, and her eyes were red.

"Tilly, I'm so sorry about this morning," she said, loud enough to carry. "My husband isn't well."

"I know your Alpha is protective, but there are ways to handle a sick man."

A murmur went round the long table.

"He put Alaric on the floor in front of the enforcers," she went on.

"I'm not blaming him. He's an outsider, he doesn't know our ways."

"Your husband attacked mine," I said.

"Oh, honey."

She said it gently, the way you speak to a child.

"Mother and I only wanted this Christmas to be peaceful. We know how hard it is for you, with your, your difficulties."

"What difficulties?"

"Well." Beatrix glanced at my mother. "You've always been a bit of a runt."

My mother's hands were in her lap.

"Tilda was a late bloomer," Greer said, with her eyes on her plate.

"A very small wolf. We never held it against her. Bea has been so patient."

"Patient," I said.

"We all hoped the Haldane Alpha would be gentle with you," Beatrix said. "Since you could never hold a mate of your own."

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