Chapter 11: Keep Her Warm

Maud pointed the shotgun at the door.

"One step in my kitchen, Alpha, and I'll put you through the wall."

"Yes, ma'am," Rhys said from the porch. "I'd earn it."

I stood up with the quilt around me.

"Maud. Let him in."

"Nora."

"Five minutes. Keep the gun on him."

She lowered it a few inches and no more.

Rhys came in and stopped at the end of the table.

He looked tired. His coat was wet through, and the leather book in his arms was darker at the corners from his grip.

He did not look at the pendant in my hand, though I saw him see it.

"I found this in my father's safe," he said.

"It opened for my thumb alone. He must have set it up for me and told me nothing."

He laid it on the table and opened it to the first page.

The ink was brown and old. The top line was one word in his father's hand: Nora.

"Read it," he said. "Please."

I took the book and read.

The old Alpha's handwriting was cramped and square.

Ice Moon's last. Female, three days old. Brought south in the snow.

Her wolf is white and strong, too strong to hide in any pack.

I have sealed it behind the Silver Claw marriage mark. While she is bound to my son, no hunter from the north will scent her.

If the bond is ever cut, the seal breaks.

Tell Rhys nothing until he is old enough to understand what he is guarding. Keep her warm.

I read it twice.

Joanna, behind me, whispered, "Ice Moon? As in the old royal line? The ones who were wiped out?"

"Twenty-six years ago," Maud said. "Yes."

I closed the book.

My hands had gone steady, which surprised me.

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