Chapter 4: The Price

"Tobias is alive," my father said. "That can change."

He stood in the cabin doorway with his hands loose at his sides.

He had never needed to raise his voice, not once in my life.

"Pack law is old, Bryn," he said. "A wolf who lays hands on the Alpha's blood is put to death at dawn. I have held the sentence for you."

"He didn't do it," I said. "The room did it."

"The room did nothing the man didn't carry in with him."

"Four people, Father. Every one of them."

"Four people who wanted something from you."

He said it kindly.

I stood up with the jacket held shut at my neck.

"What's in the room?" I asked.

He looked at me for a long moment.

"A test," he said. "It shows the person who wants you what they truly are. It protects you from men who would use you."

"It made my mate strangle me."

"It showed you what he would have done in a year, with no one to stop him."

Elias had gone still beside the stove.

He had been watching my father's mouth, and now my father turned his shoulder to him, a small movement.

I saw it, and I saw that Elias couldn't read a mouth he could not see.

"Rook," my father said, without turning his head. "You're dismissed. Your pay runs through tonight."

Elias looked at me.

He could not have heard a word, and he knew exactly what had been said.

I had no idea what it meant that my father spoke only when his back was turned.

"I'll tell you my terms," I said. "Out loud."

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