On My Drowing Day, He Announced His Bonding to Her Chapter 08
The next morning, John showed up at my house.
My mother’s eyes were swollen shut from crying. She
looked ten years older overnight.
The second she saw him, she grabbed a fistful of my
old clothes and hurled them at him.
“Get out! What are you even doing here!”
“She came to you with that vow and told me herself, all
it would’ve taken was one hand from you and she’d still be alive.”
“You watched her die and did nothing!”
He stood there in the yard and let the clothes hit him
square in the face.
This was the same lawyer who never ran out of words in front of the Pack council, and right now he couldn’t manage a single sentence in his own defense.
All he could do was bow, low and long.
After that, he took me to Lily’s grave by the river.
He knelt down and pulled out the old red ball Scarlett had taken from her.
He wiped the dirt off it, bit by bit, and set it down at the grave.
“I’m sorry.”
“I never should’ve given Lily to Scarlett. And I never
should’ve forced you to your knees.”
I lay a little ways off, listening.
But all I could picture was his hand on my neck, pushing my head down.
Sorry doesn’t mean much once it shows up this late.
That afternoon, Nathan tracked him down.
He dropped a fresh stack of records on the table.
“I’ve got it figured out.
“Every single time before the Groom claimed a bride, somebody in this Pack used it to get rid of a she–wolf
who wouldn’t fall in line.”
“Some families forced her into a bad match over
resource shares. Some crossed Elder Moonsong and
got hidden away for it. Some just vanished while their
families took hush money and never asked another question.”
John flipped through the paper trail, his face draining of color.
He’d once brushed me off with “I’ll handle it through the law.”
He’d thought that was just me being dramatic, trying to force his hand.
Now he understood. He’d spent his whole life claiming ho
to hate superstition, and the one time I actually needed
him, he’d been crueler than the Groom ever was.
Late that night, he fell asleep on the couch.
The back door eased open.
Scarlett stood there with a leash in her hand,
something dark behind her eyes.
“Lily. Come here.”
She pulled a strip of jerky out of her pocket and dangled it.
I stared her down and didn’t move an inch.
She grabbed a roll of duct tape and wound it around my muzzle, over and over.
Then she grabbed my collar and dragged me out of the yard.
“Ever since you came back, he only has eyes for you.”
She kept dragging me, cursing under her breath the whole way.
“You and Violet both should’ve disappeared from this Pack for good.”
She hauled me into a hidden patch of reeds along the river.
The current ran fast there.
She looped the leash around my neck and pulled it tight, then tighter.
That same suffocating feeling came rushing back.
She pinned me into the mud and forced my head toward the water.
“Just die already! Both of you!”
I fought with everything left in me, claws tearing deep grooves into the dirt.
Right as my mind started slipping away again.
“Scarlett!”
John had been watching the whole time. He shoved her off me, hard.
“You’re doing this to her again? Killing her twice? Do you have any heart left at all?”
She scrambled up, crying, grabbing at his pant leg.
“It’s her fault! She’s the one who took your love from me!”
“Violet’s dead and she still won’t leave me alone! Look at me, John!”
He kicked her off.
Something I couldn’t explain took hold of me, and I
turned and bolted straight out of the territory.
The ground under my paws felt more familiar with every step.
Some invisible thread seemed to be pulling me forward through the dark.
I ran the entire length of a long dirt path cutting through the fields.
Finally, I stopped in front of an abandoned chapel.
The wooden doors were shut tight. I threw myself
against them, barking like something had come apart inside me.