The Alpha Ordered Me to Bring a Dead Girl Home

The field lay beyond the pack’s burial grounds. There were no carved stones here, no moonflowers planted for the dead. Weeds crowded between sharp outcrops of rock. Even the narrow path had almost disappeared. I tied the mare to a low branch and walked to a small mound in the farthest corner. No marker. Just earth. I would have known it anywhere. From my saddlebag, I took a cloth bundle containing three pieces of honey candy and a few pages of music. Rain had blurred the ink long ago. The paper had dried stiff and yellow at the edges. The candy had softened during the ride. I laid everything beside the mound and knelt to pull the new weeds. “Lily. Mama’s here.” A root caught between two stones. I worked it loose with my left hand, careful not to disturb the soil. Then I sat on the gravel and rested my damaged right hand over the grave. “I wish I’d brought you something better.” I smoothed a little ridge of earth with the side of my thumb. “I’m sorry, sweetheart.” The wind stirred the grass. Somewhere beyond the trees, a wolf called to its pack. I waited until the sound faded before unfolding the music. “Do you remember this one? You used to ask for it every night.” I spread the pages across my knees and raised my hands over imaginary keys. My left hand found its place easily. My right hovered beside it, two fingers bent and trembling. I began. There was no music. Only wind through the grass and the faint click of damaged joints. In my head, I could hear every note. Two measures in, pain stabbed through my right hand. My fingers seized, curling against my palm. I held my wrist until the worst of it passed. “Mama’s hand hurts today.” I tried to smile. “We’ll stop there.” I lowered my forehead to my knees. The tears came quietly, falling into the loose earth between my boots. Beneath my cloak, the message crystal began to pulse. I wiped my face before taking it out. The unfamiliar seal from the shop glowed on its surface. I opened the channel. “Alex Henson.” Rowan’s voice was as clear as if he stood beside me. “Be at Bluewater Keep within the hour. If you’re late, I’ll have that apothecary shut down. Your employer won’t find work in any territory that answers to me.” My hand tightened around the crystal. “You can try.” “Then test me.” He sounded almost bored. “See whether I mean it. Don’t make this harder than it needs to be. You know what I can do.” The connection went dark. For a while, I stared at the crystal. The local Alpha owed Rowan too much to refuse him. Frank’s shop operated under a pack charter; Rowan could have it revoked. I put it away and gathered the music, leaving the candy beside the grave. Then I touched the soil once more. “He’s making trouble again, Lily.” My voice broke on her name. “I have to go, sweetheart. I’m sorry.” Bluewater Keep had been my home when I was Rowan’s mate. Now he lived there with Sophia. I rode back toward the keep and reached the iron gates before the hour was up. Before I could lead the mare through, a guard stepped into my path. “Deliveries go around the back.” His eyes moved over my faded cloak and settled on my boots. Mud filled the cracks where the leather had begun to split. “I’m here to see Rowan Ashford.” The guard gave a short laugh. “Alpha Ashford? And what business do you have with him?” “He told me to come.” “Of course he did. Try that story somewhere else.” Hooves struck the road behind me. A black carriage stopped beside the gate, the Ashford crest gleaming on its door. The window slid open. Rowan looked out. Five years had sharpened his features. There were faint lines beside his mouth that I didn’t remember, but his expression was familiar. The guard straightened immediately. “Alpha. This woman insists you summoned her. I was just sending her away.” “Let her in.” Rowan didn’t look at me again. The window closed, and the carriage passed through the gates. I left the mare with a stablehand and followed on foot. Piano music reached me as I entered the great hall. The third movement of the Moonlight Sonata. Whoever was playing couldn’t keep pace. Notes stumbled over one another, followed by a pause, then the same passage attempted again. Sophia sat at a black grand piano in a white silk gown. I recognized the instrument before I saw her face. My parents had given it to me when I left their pack to become Rowan’s mate. I knew the small flaw in the carved leg, the faint discoloration above the lowest keys. “Rowan, this piece is impossible.” Sophia lifted her hands from the keyboard. “Could Alex really play it with her eyes closed?” Rowan handed his cloak to a servant. Then he noticed me standing in the doorway. His brow furrowed. “What happened to you? Have you been sleeping in a ditch?” He approached, then stopped as the smell of bitter herbs and scorched resin reached him. His nose wrinkled. He drew out a handkerchief and pressed it beneath his nostrils. “Is this supposed to punish me?” he asked. “You dress like this so I’ll feel guilty?” I remained beside the carpet, my muddy boots on the bare stone. “You’re giving yourself too much credit, Alpha. These are the clothes I can afford.” Sophia turned on the piano bench. For an instant, her gaze caught on my right hand. Then she smiled, gathered the white silk of her skirt, and came toward me.

“Alex. It really is you.” Sophia reached for my hand, her smile softening into something that might have passed for pity. “What happened to you? Come and sit down. You must be exhausted.” Before her fingers reached mine, I pulled my right hand behind my back. “Don’t touch me.” She stopped. Her hand remained suspended between us for a moment before she drew it against her chest. “Rowan, I was only trying to help.” Her eyes shone with tears. His expression hardened. “She’s showing you kindness, Alex. Is that really how you’re going to respond?” I said nothing. “Five years outside the pack, and you’ve forgotten how to behave.” I pressed my lips together. Behind my back, my damaged fingers had begun to throb. Rowan took a small black token from his coat. The Ashford crest was stamped into its face, allowing its bearer to charge purchases to the pack treasury. He tossed it at my feet. It struck the stone and skidded against my boot. “Enough of this. Buy yourself something suitable and get cleaned up.” His gaze moved over my clothes again. “You’re not embarrassing me at the benefit tonight.” I looked at the token. Once, merchants had hurried to serve me when I carried that token. Now he had thrown it at my feet. “Well?” he asked. “You want more?” I didn’t move. “Know when to stop, Alex. Be civil to Sophia. Make an effort, and I might consider letting you back into this family.” He adjusted his cuff. “And bring your daughter when you come.” My head snapped up. “Sophia’s agreed to help raise her,” he continued. “She’s willing to treat the girl as her own. You could at least be grateful.” For a moment, I couldn’t feel the floor beneath my feet. Bring her. As though Lily were waiting in my rented room. As though I could go home, fasten her cloak, and lead her back through these gates. He thought she was alive. After that blizzard. After he had ordered his driver to put Lily and me out of his carriage so he could go to Sophia. Lily had been two years old, burning with fever. The road had already begun to disappear beneath the snow. He had never even checked. My body began to shake. I locked my knees, trying to keep it from showing. “What now?” Rowan demanded. “You think Sophia would hurt her?” Beside him, Sophia lowered her eyes. “You always did assume the worst of her. She’s offering your daughter a home.” I tried to close my right hand. Pain shot through the stiff joints. I stopped before the cramp could take hold. “My daughter won’t be coming.” The words scraped my throat. His eyes narrowed. “Don’t test me. I’m offering that little brat a place in my pack, and you dare to stand there and act as though—” “Rowan Ashford.” He stopped. I bent down and picked up the token. “I’ll be there tonight.” I straightened slowly, keeping my eyes on the door. Behind me, Sophia murmured, “Don’t be angry. This must be difficult for her. Give her time.” I walked out before I heard his answer. Beyond the keep’s outer gates, a refuse cart stood beside the road. I dropped the treasury token among the ashes and spoiled scraps. Then I wiped my fingers on my cloak. I couldn’t bear to keep touching it. By the time I reached my rented room above the cooper’s workshop, the light was beginning to fade. I pulled a wooden chest from beneath the bed. My red gown lay at the bottom, wrapped in an old sheet. I had worn it for my solo recital at the Moon Court five years ago, when the great hall had been full and my hands had still obeyed me. I lifted it into the light. A mouse had chewed through the hem. Mildew freckled the lining, and the silk smelled of damp wood. I spread it across the bed and found my sewing things. My left hand guided the needle. My right held the fabric as best it could, trembling whenever I tried to pull it taut. The stitches wandered. Twice, I had to stop and wait for the cramping to ease. Someone pounded on the door. Before I had fully opened it, Chloe pushed inside. Her eyes were swollen. Cold air followed her into the room. “Alex.” She caught me in a fierce embrace, then pulled back, gripping my shoulders. “I found him.” “Who?” “The man who drove your carriage that night.” I went still. She looked at the gown on the bed, then at the needle caught between my fingers. “He says the wreck wasn’t an accident. The axle had been tampered with.” Her voice shook so badly she had to stop. “Tell me.” “Rowan ordered your saddle girth cut. The driver heard him give the order. He knew you’d have to take the carriage.” I remembered the leather giving way beneath me. The waiting carriage. Someone helping me inside while I clutched my injured hand against my chest. “The driver saw one of Rowan’s men working on the axle before you left,” Chloe said. “Rowan ordered him down the mountain road. The men after Sophia recognized the Ashford crest and followed you instead.” The room seemed to grow very quiet. “He used you as a decoy, Alex.” She gripped my left hand. “The driver will give a statement to the pack council. I made sure of that before I came.” The needle slipped into my fingertip. I watched a bead of blood gather against the metal. For five years, I had blamed the icy road and the failed axle. I had never imagined Rowan had sent me down that road knowing what would happen. Now there was an answer. I gave a small, unsteady smile. “All right.” Chloe stared at me. “Alex?” I set the needle down. “Help me dress. Please.” She glanced at the red silk. “You’re still going?” “Yes. And I’ll need help with my face.” My reflection in the little mirror above the washstand looked pale and unfamiliar. “Tonight, I’m done pretending there’s anything left to save.” The benefit was held in the assembly hall beside Bluewater Keep, where visiting Alphas were entertained. Crystal chandeliers burned with enchanted light. Servants carried silver trays between the guests, and a tower of sparkling wine stood beneath the Ashford banners. I entered wearing the repaired red gown. The nearest conversation stopped. Then another. Heads turned as I crossed the threshold. I recognized that pause. Once, it had come just before I sat down at a piano. The gown was years out of fashion. Its hem hung unevenly, and the dark stitches showed wherever the silk caught the light. I stepped farther into the hall.

“Is that Alex Henson?” The whisper came from a woman beneath the eastern pack’s silver banners. “Goddess. She looks years older.” “Where has she been hiding? And why would she come here wearing that?” “Why does she keep hiding that hand?” I straightened my back and kept walking. Once, these people had fallen silent when I entered a room because they wanted to hear me play. Now they leaned toward one another, studying the repairs in my gown. I found an empty chair near the wall. Across the hall, Rowan stood among the visiting Alphas in a black formal coat. Sophia held his arm, her white silk bright beneath the chandeliers. His eyes settled on me. His jaw tightened, but there were too many guests watching for him to say what he wanted. Sophia gave his arm a gentle squeeze and came toward me. “Alex. You came.” She smiled for the people nearby. “Sit somewhere you can see. The performance is about to begin.” Then she leaned close enough that her perfume caught in my throat. “Look around,” she whispered. “They all think I’m his Luna. You’re a stray he let through the gates.” Her smile never faltered. “Did you really imagine you could come back and take my place?” I looked at her. “How’s your practice coming along?” Her fingers tightened around the stem of her glass. “Try not to lose your place.” For an instant, the smile disappeared. “Enjoy the performance,” she said. Then she turned away. A bell sounded beside the stage. The master of ceremonies stepped into the light and waited for the conversations to fade. “Tonight, in support of our border healers, we are honored to welcome Sophia Pruitt, performing Liszt’s ‘La Campanella.’” Applause filled the hall. Sophia gathered her skirts, climbed the steps, and bowed. She settled at my piano with the easy confidence of someone who had never been refused an audience. The opening was clean enough. I watched her hands. She had practiced the first passage carefully. Each movement had been rehearsed until she could make it look effortless. Then came the wider leaps. Her right hand landed short. She hurried to catch the rhythm, missed another note, and slowed. A man near the front lowered his glass. Sophia tried the next phrase. The melody faltered again. She stopped. For a moment, she sat with her fingers resting on the keys. Then she rose and approached the speaking stand. “Forgive me,” she said with a small, embarrassed laugh. “My hand has been troubling me today. I thought I could manage.” Sympathetic murmurs answered her. “But an old friend is here tonight. Someone many of you will remember.” She looked directly at me. “Alex Henson, our former prodigy. Perhaps she would be kind enough to finish the piece.” An attendant tilted one of the enchanted lamps toward me. White light swept across the hall and stopped on my chair. I blinked against it. Sophia knew. Of everyone watching, she was the one who knew exactly what had happened to my hand. “Alex Henson?” “I haven’t heard her play in years.” “Well, let her up. This should be interesting.” I remained seated. Rowan approached through the tables. “Go on,” he said. “She’s giving you an opportunity.” I looked past him at the stage. “It might do you some good to play again. You can’t spend the rest of your life grinding roots in that miserable shop.” “No.” His expression changed. He bent toward me, lowering his voice. “Don’t embarrass her in front of everyone.” “I said no.” His hand closed around my right wrist. Pain flared where the bones had healed badly. I caught my breath, but he only tightened his grip. “Enough.” He pulled me to my feet. For a moment, my knees refused to hold. I caught the back of the chair with my left hand. Rowan mistook it for resistance. “You’re going to walk up there and play,” he said. “Unless you want your employer to lose his shop before morning.” Then he released me with a shove toward the steps. I stumbled, steadied myself, and climbed. The light was hot against my face. Beyond it, the guests had become rows of indistinct shapes. My piano waited in the center of the stage. I knew the weight of its keys. I remembered how the lowest notes had once vibrated through the floor beneath my bare feet. Sophia stepped aside. “Thank you, Alex.” I sat down. My right sleeve slipped back as I lifted my hand. Someone gasped. In the unforgiving light, there was nowhere to hide the scar or the swollen joints. My two bent fingers hovered uselessly above the keyboard. “What happened to her?” “Those fingers. How can she possibly play?” Below the stage, Rowan frowned. “What are you waiting for?” I laid my left hand on the keys. Then my right. They had seen my hand. Still, no one stopped him. I pressed down. My stiff fingers slipped. Pain tore through my hand, and several keys sounded together in a harsh, ugly chord. I tried to lift my wrist. Another cluster of notes rang out. Then silence. I withdrew my hand and held it against my stomach. Sophia covered her mouth. “Alex. Why would you do that?” Her voice carried clearly through the hall. “If you didn’t want to help, you could have told me. There was no need to ruin the performance.” I stood, holding my right hand against my stomach. Below the stage, Rowan’s face darkened.

He took the stage steps two at a time, caught my shoulder, and threw me away from the keyboard. “Have you lost your mind?” My lower back struck the piano leg. Pain flashed through me, so sudden and fierce that I couldn’t draw breath. I collapsed onto the floor, cold sweat breaking beneath my gown. “You couldn’t let her have one evening,” he snapped. “You had to do this.” I curled around my right hand. The fingers had begun to spasm. I held them against my chest with my left, waiting for the pain to loosen enough for me to breathe. Around us, chairs scraped. Someone murmured Rowan’s name. He turned toward the guards. “Get her out of here.” Two men hesitated at the foot of the stage. “Now. Put her in the sitting room behind the hall before she causes any more trouble.” They obeyed. One caught me beneath the arms. The other seized my right wrist and pulled my hand away from my body. I made a small sound then, despite myself. Neither stopped. As they dragged me past Sophia, she leaned close. “Now do you understand?” Her lips barely moved. “You could crawl at his feet, and he’d still choose me.” I tried to pull away from the guard’s grip. “Your hand is useless,” she whispered. “So are you. Why don’t you spare everyone the trouble and die?” The doors closed behind us, cutting off the watching faces. The guards took me down a narrow passage and pushed me into a dark room. I landed on my knees, then my side. For a while, I stayed where I had fallen. My back hurt too badly to straighten, and every breath pulled at something deep beneath my ribs. Footsteps approached. The door opened just wide enough for Sophia to slip inside. She shut it behind her. A low fire burned in the hearth. In its light, the white silk of her gown seemed almost silver. She stopped beside me. “There’s something you should know, Alex.” I watched her shoes. “After the carriage wreck, the healer could have saved your hand.” My eyes lifted to hers. She crouched and caught my chin, forcing my face toward the light. Her nails pressed into my skin. “The bones could have been set before your wolf healed them crooked. You needed a surgeon that night.” I remembered fragments of that night. Blood on my sleeve. A stranger holding me still. My fingers lying at an angle fingers should never take. “The healer asked Rowan to send you to the Moon Court infirmary,” Sophia continued. “The local healer couldn’t repair the damage. You needed transport and a surgeon. Rowan refused to authorize either.” My stomach tightened. “He told them your hand could wait.” “No.” “He said you could be treated once we were safe. Until then, you and Lily would have to wait.” Her thumb pressed harder beneath my jaw. “You were always asking for something. Your hand. Your daughter. As though he had no one else to think about.” I shook my head, but she held me still. “And when I called for him, he came. Not for you. For me.” “You’re lying.” The words came out thin and breathless. Sophia smiled. “Believe whatever you like. You were drifting in and out. I heard the healer myself.” My wolf stirred weakly, alarm cutting through the pain. I reached for her, but all I found was the same frightened, exhausted presence that had lived inside me for years. Sophia released my face. “Oh. And later that night, in the blizzard.” I stopped moving. “Lily had a fever, didn’t she? You kept calling through the crystal.” After the wreck, Rowan had arrived in his own carriage. I thought he had come to take Lily and me to the infirmary. Then Sophia called, and he ordered us out. I remembered Lily’s cheek burning against my neck as I tried to shelter her with my good arm. After he drove away, I kept calling through the crystal. “I answered the first call,” Sophia said. “I could hear you begging.” The room seemed to tilt. “You answered?” “I closed the channel. Then I blocked your seal on his crystal.” She studied my face with open satisfaction. “Was it very cold out there?” My left hand went numb around the folds of my skirt. “How long did she last?” Something tore loose in my throat. I lunged. My left hand caught her neck, and we went down together. Her head struck the rug. I pressed harder, shaking so violently that I could barely hold on. “You let her die.” Sophia clawed at my wrist. “You heard me.” Her mouth opened. She dragged in enough air to scream. “Rowan!” The door crashed against the wall. I turned toward the sound just as his boot struck my chest. The blow lifted me away from her. I hit the wall and dropped, unable to catch myself. For several seconds, there was no air. Then I coughed. Blood spattered the pale stone beneath my face. Sophia scrambled toward him. “She tried to kill me.” He caught her as she pressed herself against his chest. “I came to see if she needed a healer. She started accusing me of ruining her hand.” She sobbed into his coat. “She said she’d kill me over Lily.” Rowan held her closer. His gaze found me on the floor. “You’re beyond reason.” I tried to speak. All that came was another wet cough. “You sabotage the performance, attack Sophia, then invent this filth to justify it.” He eased her into a chair. I watched him straighten her skirts before he turned back to me. “I tried to give you a way home,” he said. “I tried to let you keep some dignity.” He approached slowly. “But you won’t stop.” From his coat, he took his message crystal and pressed his thumb against the Ashford seal. A voice answered at once. “Alpha?” “Find Alex’s daughter.” I went still. “Search every settlement in the valley. I don’t care where she’s hidden the girl.” He looked directly at me. “Take her to the ward school in the western territory. She stays there under my authority. Her mother is not to see her without my permission.” “Yes, Alpha.” He closed the channel. “There,” he said. “Perhaps now you’ll understand that your actions have consequences.” The ward school. He meant to put Lily in a boarding school for pack wards, beyond my reach. I stared at him. Then I began to laugh. It hurt. Each breath dragged across my chest, and blood gathered against my lower lip, but I couldn’t stop. Rowan frowned. “What is wrong with you?” I braced my left palm against the wall and tried to sit upright. My arm shook beneath my weight. “You really don’t know.” “Know what?” I looked up at him. “Where are you going to send her, Rowan?” His eyes narrowed. “Where do you think they’ll find her?” “Enough.” “Will your guards follow her into the grave?” For the first time, he hesitated. The crystal pulsed in his hand. He glanced down at the seal. Another of his trackers—the men who had been searching the valley—was calling. Rowan opened the channel, letting the voice carry through the room. “Did you find her?” Silence. His fingers tightened around the crystal. “Where is she?”