This Time, I Won't Beg for His Mark novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Truce Flag

By the time I got my boots on, half of Ridgeback was standing at the gate.

Joss walked down the drive with three of his wolves behind him.

I walked beside him, and I kept my sleeves pulled down over my hands.

Hester stood on the gravel, small and tidy, with the dish towel on its broom handle propped against her truck.

"Alpha Galloway," she said. "Thank you for hearing me under the flag."

"You've got until the coffee gets cold," Joss said.

She turned to me, and her eyes filled.

"Val, sweetheart. You look thin."

"I ate three bowls of soup last night."

"I'm so glad." She pressed her hand to her chest. "I won't keep you. It's Lucan."

I said nothing.

"He hasn't slept since you left. He hasn't eaten. And this morning," she lowered her voice, and the Ridgeback wolves leaned in to hear, "he couldn't hold his shift."

"What does that mean?" Joss asked.

"It means his wolf wouldn't come, Alpha. He stood in the yard at dawn and tried, and nothing. He's a grown Alpha who can't turn." She dabbed her eyes. "The healer says it's the silver, working into him."

"Lucan wasn't cut," I said.

"Shock, sweetheart. It does strange things."

I thought about his shaking hand on the dais.

I thought about the cord that had gone slack under my breastbone, and about what had been on the other end of it.

Hester stepped closer and took my sleeve.

I did not pull my hand away, and I felt her fingers search for my wrist.

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