My Pet Sold Me novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: The Concord Sits

The Concord met in a white wooden grange hall in Estacada, with a flag on one wall and a crowd on the benches.

Foxes filled the left side.

Wolves filled the right, and a few bears stood at the back with their arms folded.

I walked down the middle aisle at noon with Tobin on my left.

He was pale and stiff, with tape across his ribs under his jacket, and I had told him twice to sit down in the car.

"My bond," I had said. "My rules. You walk in on your own feet or you stay in the lot."

He walked.

Dane came in after us and took a seat on the wolf side.

He did not sit in the front row, and he did not come up beside me.

I knew he was doing it on purpose, and I hated how much I noticed.

Penny sat behind me with her phone in her lap, and nobody told her to put it away.

The clerk stood at a lectern with the ledger open.

The Elder sat on a carved chair in front of the flag, with her cane across her knees.

Sable sat directly below her in a pale blue dress, with her hands folded and her braid pinned up.

She looked tiny and wronged.

"The Concord is in session," the clerk said. "The keeper of Tobin Kauffman is called."

"Here," I said.

"The complainant, Sable Trent, says this keeper owes her people a debt.

"Does the keeper wish to answer?"

"I wish to complain first."

A rustle ran across the benches.

"The keeper may state her complaint."

I turned to face both sides of the hall.

"Last night at ten past nine, my home address went up on a trade board," I said.

"The post said my bond was open and I was free to take.

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