Fated to My Vampire Lord novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: The Seat

Tiernan's POV

The Council hall was never meant to be full at noon.

The tall windows were shuttered, and a thousand candles burned in the dark.

Every Court had sent its eldest to sit in the tiers.

I stood in the well of the hall with my coat buttoned to the throat.

Willa stood at my right in a plain dark dress, with her hair braided down her back and a thin silver scar on her wrist.

She had not asked me what I was going to say.

I had not told her.

I only knew she was the first person to stand beside me without wanting anything from my name.

"Tiernan Crowhurst," said the chair, from the high seat. "You were asked to renounce the wolf."

"I was."

"It is noon."

"I know the hour."

She leaned forward.

She was a handsome woman in red robes.

Her niece sat in the first tier below her, in the same pale green.

"The Council does not acknowledge a pairing with a wolf who took her pack by violence," she said.

"The Courts have seen the circle. You have seen it. Alpha Bellegarde's daughter is a creature of force."

Willa did not move.

"Renounce her," the chair said, "and keep your House."

She raised one hand.

"Refuse, and the Council strips House Crowhurst of its seat and its place at the Renewal. You have until the glass runs out."

A servant turned the hourglass on the dais.

The sand began to fall.

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