Chapter 19: Equal

Nobody in the hall had stood up yet.

They were all still on their knees, three hundred wolves with their heads bowed, waiting for me to tell them what to do.

I had spent eight years waiting to be told what to do.

I did not know how to give an order.

"Please," I said. "Get up."

It came out small.

The whole hall rose, all at once, with a sound like a wave going out.

I felt my face go hot.

"I didn't mean it as a command," I said.

A few wolves laughed, startled and kind.

Someone clapped, and somebody else took it up, and then the whole room was loud.

I looked for Declan at the east door.

He was not there.

Two of the Seven's guards had Rhett by the arms, hauling him up the aisle toward the doors.

Rhett's head hung, and his father walked behind him without looking at anyone.

The Beta stood at my elbow.

"The Judge asks that you come to the chamber, Freja," he said. "He and the Apex are waiting."

June ran into my arms at the foot of the dais before I could answer.

"You did it," she said into my coat. "You absolute menace. You made him kneel."

"I made him kneel."

"I'm going to tell everyone I know."

"Please don't."

"I'm going to put it on a mug."

Marianne came up behind her and squeezed my hand without a word.

Her eyes were bright.

Cora hung back by a pillar, and when I looked at her she bowed her head a little, and I nodded.

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