They Took His Inheritance, He Claimed Three Alpha Mates novel · Chapter 24 of 40
Chapter 24: What Joel Said
The Tyros benches filled the whole east side of the Meeting Hall, two hundred wolves in iron-grey cloaks, and not one of them spoke.
Max walked across the floor to stand in front of them.
He wore no gloves.
He had thought about it all night, in the dark, with three men breathing around him, and he had decided that he was done with sleeves.
Joel was already there.
He stood alone on the bare stones in front of his own pack, in shirtsleeves, with no coat and no sword.
The white-bearded elder sat in the front row with his hands on his knees.
"Prime Joel," said the elder. "We were told you wished to speak."
"I do."
"Before the omega?"
"Yes."
Joel's eyes found Max's.
They were red-rimmed, and he had not slept either.
"I'm told you want it said again," Joel said. "In the same words."
"I do," said Max.
"You'd like to hear me say it."
"No."
Max looked at the benches.
"I'd like them to hear me say it.
"Four years ago, at the summer assembly, I stood where you're standing.
"I was eighteen, and I'd come to ask the Tyros benches for a loan of grain."
A shifting went through the iron cloaks.
"The prime of Tyros stood up from your bench," Max went on, evenly. "He said, I would rather take a dead dog for a mate than a thief who starves a hero."
Nobody breathed.
"I looked at him," said Max. "I said nothing. I took my grain request off the table. We did not eat well that winter."
"I know," Joel said hoarsely.
"You didn't. You didn't ask."
"No."
"You'd heard Linda say I stole from her. You thought you were speaking for a hero."
"I did."
"You were speaking for a girl who had never touched a rope."
The stones rang with the silence after.
Joel went down.
He did it slowly, one knee and then the other, with his big hands open on his thighs.
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