Chapter 13: The Cold Room

Dane didn't argue with Ernest. He turned to the two men by the doors.

"Take Regan Rycroft and Colt Merrow to the mill cold room," he said. "Lock it."

"On what charge, Alpha?" Ernest asked mildly.

"Poisoning a member of this pack. An Alpha's order needs no Council vote."

"It doesn't." Ernest buttoned his cardigan. "Hold my niece, then. She will say whatever frightens her most."

He walked out down the middle aisle between the kneeling rows.

Nobody stopped him. Nobody had any proof of him except Regan's scream and the Alpha's ear.

I felt my wolf lunge after him, and Dane's hand on my back held me still.

"Not yet," he said, very low. "Come back to me, Nan."

I came back slowly, with the cold floor under my palms and Carrie's coat over my shoulders.

I couldn't feel my legs, and I felt everything else.

The mill yard was lit with truck headlights.

Forty wolves had followed us down the hill, and they stood in the gravel in a ring and watched.

The cold room was a steel door at the back of the mill, where the pack hung venison in the fall.

Two guards stood on either side of it.

Colt was already on his knees in front of the door, and he was crying.

"Nan." He grabbed for my hand and I stepped back. "Nan, I'll tell the Council everything. Every word."

"Get up," Dane said.

"I'll swear on anything you want. It was Dad and Regan, it was all of them, I just..."

"Which was it?" I said. "Your dad, or Regan?"

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