The Alpha King's Heart novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: A Debt of Blood

Mom did not look at the King.

She did not look at the eight Alphas, or at Strake.

She looked at me, and her mouth moved around the blood.

"Macy," she said. "Baby, I'm sorry."

I was over the gallery rail before Selma could grab my sleeve.

I ran down the aisle, and two of Strake's wolves stepped across it.

"Let her through," the King said.

"The prisoner is held under blood-debt law," Strake said. "No one touches her."

"Let her through, Alpha."

It was not loud.

Every wolf at the long table sat back a little.

The two wolves looked at Strake, and he smiled and nodded, and they stepped aside.

I reached my mother and put both arms around her.

The iron cuffs were hot against my ribs.

Her wrists under them were raw.

"Who did this?" I said.

"Them," Mom said. "At the house. I went at dawn."

"You promised you'd stay in the Keep."

"I had to burn it before anyone found it."

I did not ask what.

I knew already, and my throat closed.

"Your father's blasting license," she said into my hair. "I had it in the stove, and I had the match lit. They kicked the door in."

"They're banned from the district," I said.

"The ban covers the district," Strake said, pleasantly. "It does not cover a debt of blood. I did not take a human off the street, my King. I served a claim."

"On what grounds?" the King said.

"Forty-one dead at Stonegate Hall. The man who set the charge is dead, so the debt passes to his house."

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