Caged No More: The True Heir's Wrath novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Cage Turned

"You held what cup?" I said.

My voice was very quiet in the Moot hall.

Bree stopped struggling.

She looked around at the three hundred faces and understood that there was no way to take it back.

Her lip curled.

"Your father's," she said. "Every night for four months. Wolfsbane in his broth, a little more each week. He was so proud of how sweet I was to him."

A groan went through the hall.

"He was healthy," I said.

"He was strong. It took longer than I wanted." She laughed, breathless. "He asked for you at the end. I told the guard you were asleep and he shouldn't wake you. He died looking at the door."

I let go of her wrists.

I did not trust my hands.

"Why?"

"Because it was my house," Bree said. "He took me in at ten, and everyone said how lucky I was. But the seat was yours. The pack was yours. The name was yours. I was the pretty orphan who got the leftovers."

"You had everything I had."

"I had your hand-me-downs, and I had your table scraps, and Dane." She turned and spat at him, still on his knees on the floor. "And he was a coward with a fine jawline. I had to make him a king, so I could stand beside him."

Dane did not even lift his head.

His half-torn paw lay in front of him on the planks.

The bald Alpha rose.

"The Moot has heard," he said. "Does anyone speak for this woman?"

Nobody did.

Not one wolf in three hundred.

"Then hear the sentence," said the stooped Alpha. "Dane Locke, you took a seat you did not earn, you fed on your mate's blood, and you knew about the coffee and kept quiet. You lose your name, your rank and your ring. You will be held in silver until the next moon, and then you will be put out of every pack in this valley."

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