Chapter 29: The Packs Reel

The elders did not shout.

They were old, and they had sat at that table through three wars and a famine.

They looked at Mary across the length of the Hall in a silence that went on a long time.

The white-bearded Tyros elder spoke first.

"Lady Mary," he said. "You are suspended from your office by the Registry. You were told to keep to your rooms."

"I could not stay while my son was being destroyed."

"You have no son in this hall."

"I have a stepson." Her voice broke beautifully. "I raised him from a child, and I know what he is."

She spread her hands at the floor.

"Three primes down in a single morning. My poor boy has a gift, and it is not a gift of God."

Murmurs ran along the benches.

Max felt them go through the room.

The sound was not hostile yet, but it was moving, and it could still tip either way.

He got to his feet.

"May I speak?"

"You may," said the elder.

"I have a mark, and each of them agreed to it, in this room or in my bed. I didn't order anyone."

"Agreed," Mary said softly. "As men agree to a leash."

"Say what you mean."

"I mean that a rescued man is a bound man. It is the oldest law in any pack, my dear."

She turned to the benches, wide-eyed.

"A wolf who owes his life is owed in turn, and there is no refusing it. He pulled them from the river as children.

"He let them think it was my Linda for twelve years. I wonder why he kept so quiet.

"A debt that deep does not ask a man for love. It simply takes."

The murmur turned.

Max had braced for a good many things that morning.

He had not braced for this, from her mouth, in the plain voice of a woman telling the truth about something else.

It went in under his ribs and stayed there.

Keep reading free with an account. Start They Took His Inheritance, He Claimed Three Alpha Mates from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.