Chapter 17: The Nine

Ewan's POV

On Friday morning all nine sat on the dais in the Pinecrest Moot Hall, in black coats, with a silver pin at each throat.

Six of them I had only ever met across a table.

I stood on the floor in a plain shirt with my arm still in its sling.

I had no pin.

Two hundred Pinecrest wolves filled the benches, and behind me stood forty of mine, in grey jackets, in silence.

Thea stood a yard to my left, in a plain dark dress, with her hands loose.

She did not look at me.

I wanted her to, and I had no right to want it.

Judith sat in the front row between two guards, in her black dress and her veil.

Alden sat three seats down from her, with a guard of his own, looking at his hands.

The hunter was in the Keep's cell. I had refused to hand him over.

The senior member rapped the table.

"The first matter," he said. "Alpha Strathmore."

"Yes."

"On Tuesday you seized and chained an officer of this Council on your own land."

"He crossed my stones with a crossbow and a collar made of bone. He put them on a woman who was my guest."

"He was acting under seal."

"Then show me the seal."

He didn't answer.

A younger member at the end of the table leaned toward him and murmured something, and the senior member's face went tight.

"There is no seal on file," he said, finally.

"Then he was a private man," I said.

"He carried the Council's collar."

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