All Chapters of After I Repaid My Debt to the Alpha, He Begged Me Back: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Marta carefully extracted the fragments from my wound with a pair of silver tongs.I bit down on a cloth and didn't make a sound.But the wolf inside me was trembling.Marta pressed a hand to my chest, over my wolf's heart, and held it there for a long time."The silver poison has reached her heart."You've been absorbing silver poison from others for years, and it's been building up inside her. This last spike pushed her past her limit."She looked at the shelf by the wall.On it sat a small clay jar holding 36 silver beads.She didn't go on."Only a moonflower can draw the silver out."I closed my eyes for a moment."Vera is wearing the moonflower in her hair."Marta sent Quinn, her apprentice, to the Alpha's house.Quinn came back red-faced."He said the flower's for the bonding. Eileen will see it in three days."Quinn hesitated, then went on even more quietly."And Vera said, 'Her wolf's dying? She had plenty of strength a minute ago when she was throwing things at people.'"Marta

On the day of the bonding, I sat beside the boundary stone at the edge of pack territory.My release wouldn't take effect until the moon rose.I only had to wait a few more hours.At noon, the first crow came."Still throwing a fit?"At dusk, the second arrived."Come back before moonrise, and I'll pretend none of this ever happened."The third came in a hurry, its feathers ruffled."I'll overlook your little tantrum this once."But if you dare humiliate me in front of the whole pack, don't ever come back."I looked at that last line.Ten years ago, he had carried me out of the fire on his back and said he would protect me from then on.Ten years later, the one he protected was standing on the altar in my gown, wearing his fang.I didn't bother opening any of the messages that followed.I untied the notes from their legs one by one and threw them into the fire.Just before dark, one of Vera's followers, Silas, rode up looking for me.He reined in his horse and looked down at me from th

Eileen's POV:The night I crossed the boundary stone, the wind poured down my collar, and the cold went straight to my bones.Back when my she-wolf curled over my heart, that spot stayed warm even on the coldest winter nights.Now I could no longer smell the forest or hear the distant water.My fingertips were still black.The silver had seeped out of her heart the night she died and stayed in me.I walked all night, holding the carved wolf with its broken leg.At dawn, I stepped into the ruins, where weeds reached my knees.In the ten years since the fire, knee-high grass had covered the scorched earth.Half of a fire-blackened stone wall still stood in the wind.Ten years ago, when the house collapsed, a teenage Cassian had dug through the burning beams beneath this wall and carried me out on his back.I pulled the weeds away from the foot of the wall and set the wooden wolf there.Missing a leg, it leaned crookedly against the wall."We're home."I stroked its rough wooden head and

I didn't go after midnight.I waited until dawn.When the sun came up over the mountains, I walked onto Greyrock pack territory.The square outside Cassian's mansion was packed with pack members on their knees.Word that Cassian was hanging on by a thread had spread through the whole pack, and everyone was waiting for the silver healer to work another miracle.When the crowd saw me, they froze, then parted on their own to let me through."What's the jinx doing back here?""She left the pack, and she still has the nerve to set foot on our land?"Several elders stood on the steps. Rowan, the head elder, was at the front, his face livid."Get out! Vera's using every ounce of her divine power to save the Alpha, and you dare show your face here? You'll bring nothing but bad luck!"I didn't stop.I walked straight through that door.The room was dark, and it reeked of silver poison.Cassian lay in bed, his left arm wrapped in cloth. The black had already crept up his neck.Vera knelt beside

Over the following months, Cassian came often.He never set foot in the ruins. He would only stop outside the stone wall for a while.Sometimes he left a bundle of firewood. Sometimes a packet of medicine Marta had prepared.He only had one good hand now, and the firewood was always tied crookedly.He would set it down, stand there a while, and go.I never went out.On the night of the first snowfall, the wind was strong.I could hear someone standing outside the stone wall for a long time.I didn't open the door.The next morning, there was a bundle of firewood in the snow, with his cloak draped over it.Two deep footprints marked the snow outside the wall. He must have stood in the same place all night.The last time he visited before spring, he came inside.He had lost a lot of weight. His left arm hung at his side, completely useless.He stood by the fire for a long time, then pulled something from inside his cloak.It was a piece of wood.The broken leg of the carved wolf had been