"I don't accept you" — he shouted it in front of everyone novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Silver Chains

Imogen's POV

Ezra was waiting in the kitchen at dawn with two mugs of coffee and a face that had not slept.

"You asked for a day," I said.

"I need less than that."

"The river road," I said. "Your sentry saw my father's car last night."

"My people stopped it at the bridge. Dunstan said he was driving Celia somewhere quiet. The bag held clothes and nothing else."

"And the flask?"

"Still in her hand. She wouldn't let go of it."

He pushed a mug across the table.

"It's wolfsbane," he said. "Aconite, steeped in something sweet to cover the bitter. It was in Jasper's breath. It was in the flask Celia put to his mouth."

I stared at him.

Clover, at the counter with a piece of toast, stopped chewing.

"Say that again," Clover said.

"He's being poisoned. Slowly, in small doses, and he has been for a long time. Months. Maybe years."

"His wolf has been quiet for two years," I said.

"Yes."

"Celia hands him that flask every morning. I watched her do it in the lot." My voice came out thin. "I watched her give it to him thirty seconds before he walked up to me."

"I know."

"You didn't say so in the cottage."

"I couldn't prove it. If I'd said it in a room full of Redwood wolves, the flask would have gone in the river by noon, and your father would have called it a Black Fork lie."

I thought about it.

He was right, and I hated that he was right.

"You're sure."

"I smelled it when I was twelve," Ezra said. "I'm sure."

Clover put her toast down.

"Okay," she said. "I have something to say, and I need you both to stay calm."

"Clover."

"It's about the lot."

She wiped her fingers on a dish towel.

"Yesterday I asked one of the Black Fork drivers how long it took the Alpha to get from the truck to you. And he said, well, it was a minute. A whole minute. The Alpha sat in the cab with the engine running and watched Jasper shout until the very end."

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