The Apex They Could Never Own: A Werewolf Romance of Power, Possession, and Fate novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: Nobody's Wolf
The old woman waited in the lot until I had my boots on.
She wore the same grey coat she had worn at the Gathering.
She looked tired, with a stack of papers under her arm.
"I won't keep you," she said. "I'd like three signatures."
Ansel stood behind me in a borrowed shop shirt, with his hands in his pockets.
"The first voids the Heikkinen loan," she said. "It was never legal. The Seat had no right to a surety on a man's whole life."
She turned the page.
"The second strikes the Order from the Council's law for good. No Speaker, no Seat, no holder, can speak it, and nobody pretends it was ever a kindness."
"And the third?" I said.
"The third names the grave."
She put her finger on a line near the bottom.
My throat closed, because I knew the name on it.
"We found her under the east lawn last night," the old woman said. "Hattie's mother is there now. She asked for you to sign as witness."
I signed all three on the hood of my truck, with Ansel's hand steady on my shoulder.
"The Seat?" the old woman asked, one more time, at the end.
"The Seat is yours until the vote," I said. "And I'd like the valley to vote on something bigger. Nobody who wears a black cuff should be anybody's weapon again."
"I'll write it down."
"Write it in pen."
She almost smiled, and left.
Ansel watched her taillights.
"You just turned down the most powerful chair in the valley," he said.
"It had a lousy view."
"Dara."
"It's seven o'clock," I said. "I open at eight."
I took his hand and led him up the back stairs to my apartment over the shop.
It was one room, with a kitchen along one wall and a bed under the window.
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