Fated to My Vampire Lord novel · Chapter 12 of 24
Chapter 12: The White Wolf
I danced with Tiernan under a thousand candles, and for one whole song I forgot everyone in the room.
His hand was at my back and mine was on his shoulder.
He had not said a word about his secret, and I had not asked again.
Nobody looked at us with contempt anymore.
The women from the opera box curtsied when we passed.
Then the music stopped, and the double doors at the end of the ballroom opened.
My father walked in with ten wolves behind him, in grey coats, and the room made space for them.
Keeley walked at his side.
She was white, and she was holding her own elbows.
"Alpha Bellegarde," said the chair, from the dais. "You are a guest of House Crowhurst this evening."
"I am grateful," Dad said, and bowed to Tiernan, who did not bow back. "And I will keep my business short. I invoke the Hearth Claim."
A ripple went through the Courts.
"On what grounds?" the chair said.
"The Strike was a mistake," said Dad. "I acted in grief, on bad advice. My daughter Willa was adopted into my hearth, and by the oldest law she may be recalled to it at Midwinter by the Alpha who took her in, before the Courts. I recall her. I restore her name, her place and her room."
He turned, and for the first time that night he looked straight at me.
His voice was gentle.
"Come home, Willa."
"No," I said.
"This is not a question."
Tiernan stepped in front of me.
"She has declined," he said. "Clause nine is in force, by the Council's own ruling."
"Clause nine protects her from the pack," said Dad, "and the Hearth Claim is not the pack. It's her family. Bring her."
Four wolves moved at once.
Tiernan caught the first by the collar and threw him ten feet across the marble.
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