Chapter 14: The Strap

My father arrived at Thornfield on Wednesday evening, and the dean lit every candle in the dining hall to receive him.

It was a custom for visiting Alphas.

I stood at the back with Cade's hand clamped around mine.

Four hundred students bowed when he came through the doors.

He looked as he had on the night he gave the order, heavy and calm.

He wore a dark coat with the Soderstrom pin at his collar.

The elder walked on his left.

On his right, with a coil of leather on his belt, walked the beta who had held my arm in the yard.

Cade's fingers tightened until they hurt.

"That's him," he said, barely a breath. "That's the man."

"Which man?"

"The one with the strap."

My father stopped in front of our table, and the hall fell quiet.

He did not look at Cade.

He looked at me, at my dark hair and my cropped ends.

I saw him know me, and decide what to do about it, in one blink.

"This is the girl," he told the dean. "The one who robbed my study. I'll take her home to answer for it."

"Say my name, Father," I said.

His eyes went flat.

He said nothing, because the girl in the silver dress was sitting two tables away.

Anson was beside her, watching us with his hands folded.

Cade stood up.

He rose slowly, and the whole hall turned to look at him.

"Ten years ago," he said, "your beta tied a twelve-year-old boy to a post in your yard."

My father's face did not change.

"He used that strap on my back fifteen times. My pack was dying in the lodge behind me, and you watched from the porch."

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