The Alpha Heir’s Candle Game Chapter 11
A Heart That Sleeps Better
Ethan fell ill.
Just like the year he had knelt for me in the rain outside the Pack Alpha’s study, he came down with a fever that wouldn’t break.
I went to see him.
Nothing more that the Grand Luna’s order.
I changed the cloth on his forehead. I spooned broth between his cracked lips. I watched his breathing until it evened out.
Late in the night, he came half-awake.
He saw me sitting beside his cot and froze. He rubbed his eyes as if he thought his fever was showing him something that wasn’t there.
His voice came out cracked.
“I thought. You weren’t ever going to look at me again. Does… does this mean, my dear Jade is showing me mercy and forgiveness?”
Hope, sharp as a small blade, in his eyes.
I kept my voice level.
“This is the Grand Luna’s order. She also had something to say: once you’re well enough, go home. The sooner, the better.”
He went stiff.
His hand, half fallen off the edge of the cot, caught my little finger. Careful. Barely touching.
“I’m so sorry. When you left, I thought you were still angry that I’d given the pass to Clara and not to you. I thought you were being difficult again. I thought if I let you sit with it for a few days, you would come to my study with red eyes and apologize, the way you always used to. I thought no matter how angry you were, if I held you long enough, you would come back. Now I know. What you were really angry about.”
Tears came up in his eyes. “Those two candles. I did put my thumb on it. I was afraid you’d win and go, and I still wanted to grind your temper down. So I had the attendants bring in different candles. I forgot that this was the thing you kept calling unfair.”
His hand closed slowly on mine. “Jade. I swear it. I will never do that again. Be whatever you want to be. Whatever mistakes you make, I’ll cover them. Please. Can you…”
“No.”
I said it before he could finish. Clean. One word.
“Everything that happened is in the past. I love the life I live now. And I’d like the Alpha heir to move on from the old one, sooner is better.”
I stood.
He held onto the tip of my finger like a pup, unwilling to let go.
“Even if I take Clara as my Luna instead of you. You won’t care, don’t you!”
I said, “Mm. If the Alpha heir wants to hear it from me. I wish you and Clara long life together. Many pups. Making the Blackwell Pack bigger.”
His hand fell away.
Before I closed the door, I looked back once.
The pillow under his cheek was soaked wet.
I turned my face away and closed the door.
…
I didn’t go back to his room. Clara took over.
Not long after, Ethan recovered and left the sanctuary for the pack house.
He didn’t come back. Nothing more was sent.
I served the Grand Luna. Fully. With my whole self.
In time, I became her most trusted attendant. Wolves I had never spoken to bowed to me in the corridors.
I moved through the sanctuary and the pack house as I pleased.
Three winters passed.
Three winters since Ethan took his father’s seat and became Pack Alpha of the Blackwell pack.
Three winters, and the wing that had once been so quiet had grown loud with contract mates.
Clara had risen higher than any of the others. She had come close, so close, to the Luna seat.
But she had never taken it.
None of them had.
The Luna seat sat empty.
Council wolves whispered. The outer packs whispered. He’d taken twelve contract mates in three years and named a Luna for exactly none of them.
One winter afternoon, the Grand Luna and I sat by her fire with a small board of stones between us.
She lifted a piece. She set it down. She watched my face.
“Twelve mates in three years, and still no Luna. Who do you think my grandson is waiting for, honey.”
I smiled. I moved my own stone.
“I wouldn’t dare guess at the Pack Alpha’s heart, Grand Luna. I only know that Jade Whitmore will stay at your side for the rest of her life.”
Love had run me ragged.
Only power let me sleep at night.
[The End.]