My Mate's Last Message Wasn't for Me novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The Shift Test

The council met in the great room of the Greywater Hall, under a ceiling hung with the pelts of old Alphas.

Seven elders sat along a table, and a crowd of students stood behind a rope.

I saw Pip in the front row with both fists up in a clumsy sort of salute.

Cormick sat at the end of the table, in the heir's chair.

He did not look at me, and I understood it was a courtesy.

Niles and Margot stood on the far side of the rope in their lab coats.

Two of the elders wore the Ormond silver at their throats. One of them watched me with an old, flat face I had seen at Niles's family table.

The eldest, a thin woman with a cane, rapped the floor.

"A report has been filed that Miss Strangways cannot hold a shift under pressure. We will test it. Miss Strangways, a half-shift. Hold it until we say."

"Yes, Elder."

I stepped into the painted circle on the floor.

The drum began, one slow beat, and my wolf came up through my spine.

It was easy after two days of practice. I held it at the shoulders and breathed.

One minute passed.

Then another elder slapped a second drum, fast and loud, and a third banged a pair of cymbals together close to my ear.

Someone behind the rope laughed nervously.

The noise hit the half-shift hard.

The wolf pushed, and my skin prickled to the full change.

I let it push and did not give.

I thought of Cormick's thumb on my forearm and the line at the shoulder.

I held it.

A drumstick broke somewhere. The cymbals clanged again, louder.

My knees shook, and the fur crawled up my neck, and I held.

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