Chapter 8: Clause One

The Council's witness stood on the porch with her book open and looked at us for a long moment.

"The breach is called by the book, not by the Luna," she said. "The penalty is the Luna's to name."

"His vote," I said.

Ronan turned his head.

"At the heir vote, on whatever day Godfrey calls it, the Alpha's vote doesn't count."

"That's heavy," the witness said.

"It's what I'd have asked for if he'd stayed away. He didn't."

"Agreed," Ronan said, before she could ask him.

She wrote it down, shut the book and went back to her car.

I went inside and shut the door in his face.

Through the wood, I heard him say, "Eleven nights."

"What?"

"I kept the clause for eleven nights. I broke it on the twelfth."

"You couldn't keep one clause for twelve nights, Ronan."

"Neither could you," he said. "You said Lower."

I was glad he couldn't see my face.

The day was long.

Hazel came back at noon, gray with exhaustion and pleased about a healthy baby.

She took one look at me and said nothing.

At dusk the fever came back, worse than before.

It wasn't the bone-deep kind.

It sat low in my stomach and pulled, and my wolf turned in circles looking for a door.

I told myself I was going up to the big house for my father's letter box.

Godfrey had sent it to Ronan's study after the funeral.

I told myself that all the way up the drive.

The study light was on.

I pushed the door open without knocking.

Ronan was standing at the desk with his sleeves rolled to the elbows, and he froze at the sight of me.

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