Chapter 18: The Moon Stone

Ilse's POV

I had heard every word of it from the steps.

I had heard him swear the seat away, for himself and every Wolcott after him, and my hands had shaken so hard that Fenn had to hold them.

Now Joran knelt on the black stone with two rogues on his arms, and he looked up at me.

He was not asking me to save him.

He looked sorry for the trouble.

"Let him go," I said.

My voice filled the hall.

Behind me, sixty wolves of Silverfen and eighty of Iron Moon came in through the doors and spread along the walls.

The old white-bearded wolf walked at my shoulder with his chin up.

The rogues shifted on their feet.

Osric stood very still beside the stone, holding the empty vial.

"She came," he said. "Just as I said she would."

"You said I'd bleed."

"You will."

"I already have." I held up my cut arm. "Look at your stone."

He looked down.

The ring of white light on the black rock had widened to the size of a table.

It was turning slowly in place.

"It took a drop of me," I said. "Tell me what it does."

Osric said nothing.

"It wakes for the Moon line," Verity said, in a thin voice. "Father, you said it would wake for the Alpha who held her blood."

"Quiet."

"You said the seat was empty!"

"The seat is empty," Osric snapped. "That is the only reason the stone listens at all."

He wheeled on the rogues.

"Take her. Now."

They surged toward me.

I did not draw back.

I walked across the floor to the stone and stepped onto it, in front of everyone.

The cold went up through my boots.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Alpha Who Rejected His Queen from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.