My Pack Erased Me. The Lycan King Didn't. novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Edda's Hour

The Council sat again on the sixth day, and my mother asked to be heard.

She sent the request in writing, in small neat handwriting, to the King's clerk.

I found out when the clerk read it aloud.

I was sitting at the back of the long hall in a plain chair beside Joss, and I didn't turn my head.

"Edda Haldane, of the Hollow line, asks leave to speak to the Alphas," the clerk said.

"Granted," said Caspian from the dais.

He didn't look at me when he said it.

I had slept at Highcrest the night before, in my own rooms with the lock on my side, and I had not slept alone.

That was nobody's business but ours.

My mother came down the aisle in the green cardigan.

She had her hands at her sides, and for once they were still.

My father walked behind her.

He had given Joss the pin and had no seat in the Council, so he stood by the door in a clean shirt with his hat in his hands.

She reached the open floor in front of the dais and stopped.

She looked at forty Alphas.

Then she looked at the Stonefall Alpha, who was smiling at her very slightly.

"My name is Edda," she said. "I was born in this house, in the east wing. I was kept in a room with the other Hollow girls until I was old enough to be bound to the royal line."

Nobody moved.

"There were eleven of us in that room. The old King's men came for the next girl every spring. She was fourteen. She was in the next bed to mine. They came for her in the dark, and the next morning her bed was made."

Her voice stayed level.

"There were four of us left in the room when I ran."

"I walked for two weeks. I ate out of dumpsters. I drank from ditches. I am not telling you this to be pitied."

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