They Forgot My Awakening, So I Took the Pack novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Corwin's POV: The Gold Seal

Corwin's POV

The envoy sent for me before noon, and I went because I had nothing left to lose by going.

His office was a narrow room in the Council house, with one window and a very tidy desk.

He did not stand when I came in.

"Alpha Strake," he said. "Sit."

I stayed on my feet.

"You left Pinewatch before the hall emptied. You did not wait to hear her answer."

"She said she'd answer the Council."

"She will." He folded his hands. "And I think you know she may say no."

I knew.

I had been awake for twenty-six hours with the thought.

Once her family had knelt, once her father had cried in front of nine packs, a good daughter would go home.

Katja was kinder than she let anyone see.

She might take the seat and her father's apology and her sister, and the whole of Pinewatch, and leave a man in Highmere with a treaty and a quiet house.

"I have an offer," the envoy said.

He opened a drawer and laid a document on the blotter.

It was one page, on Council cream, with a gold seal at the foot.

"The treaty has an enforcement clause, which nobody has used in a hundred years. If the heir refuses the marriage, the Council may compel it, by order, with the Alpha's seal."

I read the first line.

Then I read the second.

It would hold her to me by law.

Not by the bond or by her wanting, but by a paper with a gold seal, with the whole Council as witness.

"Your pack is bleeding trade, Strake," the envoy said, quietly. "You gave up the passes in a gesture. You'll lose your seat. This puts it all back."

He slid the page an inch toward me.

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