Sacrificed Riley to the King novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Council Sits

The envoy stepped close and breathed in.

I stood still and let her.

Everyone at the pass watched her face, and her face gave nothing away.

"She carries it," the envoy said at last.

A sound went through the Pinebrook wolves.

"I said yes," I said.

The gray woman looked at me.

"Nobody took me," I said. "I asked him to touch me, in a cottage, with the door shut, and I'd ask again. Tell me which law makes that his crime."

"The law is about a tribute," the envoy said carefully.

"Then I wasn't one," I said. "A tribute goes alone and unfollowed. You said it yourself. I was followed from the first mile, so the call was never given."

Torin did not say a word.

His hand had closed into a fist at his side.

The envoy turned over the red stone in her fingers once more.

"The Council will rule on it," she said. "Three nights, in the great hall at the Keep. Every Alpha will be there."

Theron smiled and bowed his head, and the forty wolves went back down the pass.

Delphine looked over her shoulder at me once.

It was not a frightened look.

On the third night, Blackthorn Keep held more wolves than I had ever seen in one room.

Eleven Alphas sat along both sides of the great hall in carved chairs.

The gray envoy sat at the head, and Torin stood below the dais, bareheaded, with his hands behind his back.

I stood beside Garrick with Eli's hand in mine.

He had insisted on coming.

"I want to see it," he had said. "Nobody tells me anything."

"Alpha Stroud," the envoy said. "You have the floor."

Theron rose, composed and solemn.

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