Rejected for Being Barren, Now the Alphas Kneel novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Edge of the Woods
Rhea's brother, her old mate and her sister find her with six muddy pups and demand she hand them over; she refuses, the pups command all three to their knees, and an Ashfall horn sounds on the ridge.
My brother, my old mate and my sister walked out of the trees while I was pulling my youngest daughter out of a mud puddle.
I knew their scents before I saw them.
My brother smelled of cedar and cold iron. My old mate smelled of the pine smoke that used to cling to my pillow.
My sister smelled of our mother's people, so clean and sweet that it hurt.
Ten years ago, on the night of my bonding ceremony, my brother Perrin chained me to a tree with silver and left me in a blizzard.
My mate, Theron, had told him I was useless. I heard it myself, through the door, an hour before the ceremony.
"A mate who can't carry pups is a mate I can't use," he said.
That night he bonded with my sister instead, the one who had shown up out of nowhere the week before.
Nobody asked where she had been. Her scent matched, and in Stormbrook, scent was proof.
Now all three of them stood at the edge of my woods and stared at six children.
"Is it true?" Theron asked. He was thirty-one now, and he carried the title of future alpha with ease. "People said you had a litter."
"They're my children," I said.
"They're soaked through," Perrin said, and he shrugged off his coat. "Someone find these children a blanket."
Bram, my oldest by four minutes, stepped in front of the others. He was nine, with mud to his elbows.
"We were catching a frog," Bram said. "It's a good frog."
Theron's mouth twisted. "Whose are they, Rhea? Some rogue's? You were supposed to be barren."
"I thought you were dead," Perrin said, and his voice was rough.
I gathered the children behind me by touch, six small shoulders under my hands.
My sister, Corinna, came forward with her palms open. Her eyes were wet. She had always cried well.
"Rhea, please come home," she said. "I've wanted a sister my whole life. I only want what's best for you."
She looked down at the children and her smile stayed where it was.
"But they can't come. You can see that. Stormbrook can't take in bastards."
Perrin was not looking at their faces. He was looking at their eyes.
All six of them had my mother's eyes, a pale gold I had never seen on anyone else.
He stared at them a moment too long, and then he looked away.
"Pack law says you were Theron's mate," Perrin said. "You belong to Stormbrook. Come back and the pups can be fostered out."
"Fostered out," I said.
"To good families. You'd never know where."
Theron reached for my arm.
I pulled it away so hard that I almost fell.
"You made your choice ten years ago," I said. "You don't get to choose again."
Theron's wolf flashed in his eyes. Perrin's did too. A she-wolf who says no to two future alphas is supposed to drop her gaze.
I did not drop it.
I had run for weeks with silver burns on my wrists. I had given birth to six babies in a hollow log with nobody to hold my hand.
I was done being easy to leave.
So I stepped between them and my children.
"Take one step toward them," I said, "and I will tear out your throat."
Perrin laughed. "You? You couldn't hold a rabbit down."
"Then watch," I said.
He took a step. Theron took one with him.
The air behind me changed.
Every bird in the Greywater woods went quiet at once.
I felt six small hands let go of my coat.
Bram's voice came out low, much too low for a boy of nine. "Stop."
All six children said it with him.
Their eyes went from pale gold to bright, burning amber, every one of them at once.
Theron's knees hit the mud first.
Perrin followed, one hand flat in the puddle, his face white with shock.
Corinna stood a moment longer, looking at the two of them. Then she dropped to the ground beside Theron, a breath after the men.
I stared at my brother and my old mate kneeling in front of nine-year-olds.
Nobody in Stormbrook had ever been commanded by a pup.
"Mama," Bram said. "My head feels funny."
Then, from the ridge behind us, a horn sounded, long and deep, and it was not any horn that Stormbrook owned.
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