Chapter 14: The Moon Room

Thane's POV

I went down alone because I did not want Sorrel to see it first.

Gareth stayed at the top of the stairs with two of my fighters and the key.

Lorcan stayed with her.

The old wing smelled of dust and cold iron.

My father had told me the cellar under it was a food store, and I had believed him since I was a boy.

I had walked past that door ten thousand times.

The lock turned on the first try.

It was one long stone room, and the light came from a single bulb on a wire.

Along the left wall stood rows of glass jars, each sealed with wax and marked with a date in my father's hand.

There were hundreds of them, dark and still.

I read the dates down the shelves.

The first was twenty years old.

The last was from the week Sorrel came home.

On the right wall hung a heavy oak chair, bolted into the rock.

It had leather cuffs on the arms.

The leather was worn smooth and shiny at the wrist, at a height that fit a small woman.

I stood in front of it for a long while.

For five years I had not slept.

I had lain awake telling myself the pack was safe because I was keeping it safe, and the whole time the border held because of this.

Every winter I had been proud of how strong we were.

I put my hands on the chair and pulled.

The bolts held for a moment, and then my wolf rose in me, easy and furious, and they tore out of the stone.

The chair hit the floor.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Three Alphas Who Denied My Triplet Babies Came Back... from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.