They Stole Her for a Breeding Den, She Chose the Alpha Who Let Her Leave novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: The Table

There were eleven men at the table, and every one of them turned to look at me.

They were old, most of them, with heavy rings and quiet faces.

They were the heads of the other wolf families in the city, and I understood within a minute that they had come to inspect me.

"Stand there, Miss Venn," Silas said. "By the candles."

I stood by the candles.

My borrowed cardigan was too big, and my bare feet were cold on the boards.

"Turn around, please."

"No."

The murmur at the table stopped.

Silas's smile did not change.

"I would like the council to see you," he said.

"They can see me. I'm right here."

Someone laughed under his breath, an old man at the far end.

Silas set his glass down.

"She is small," said a thin man at his right. "Smaller than I was told."

"She is a good size for what she's for," Silas said.

My face burned.

I looked down the table and found Darius at the foot of it, still as a post, with his hands flat on the cloth.

He was not looking at me.

He was looking at his uncle, and there was nothing in his face at all.

Eli sat three places from him, very pale.

Ronan was there with his arm in a sling, and he grinned at me over the rim of his cup.

"Mara Venn," said the thin man. "You have been told what happens at the full moon?"

"I have."

"And you accept it?"

The whole room waited.

I thought of Nico in the study, miserable, saying yes, out loud, in front of everyone.

I thought, they need this from me.

I took a breath.

"No," I said.

Silas said, very softly, "Miss Venn."

"No, I don't accept it." My voice shook, and I made it steady. "I was taken from my work in front of three people. I was drugged. I was locked in a room with iron on the window. One of these men put his hands on me in the dark, and your nephew broke his arm to get him off."

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