He Traded Me for Land, Now I Write the Rules novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: The Vote

Adeline's POV

The Council voted at nine on Friday morning, and nobody was late.

The gallery was full, and the aisles were full, and forty Ashgate wolves stood along the back wall in their work clothes.

Everett sat on my left with his hands in his lap.

On my right was an empty chair, and I had asked Toby to keep it for Camille, who was still stuck in the corridor with her father.

The Chair read the motion.

"That Ashgate's seat on the Alpha Council be revoked for cause: the private trade of a registered wolf, and the withdrawal of protection from a minor ward in a single night."

She looked down the table.

"The land committee holds the deciding votes. Thirteen landholders. Six have declared for revocation, six against. One has not declared."

She meant me.

"Miss Hartigan, will you speak before you vote?"

"Yes."

I stood.

I had written nothing down.

"A month ago I was a woman in an Alpha's apartment with no bite and no vow," I said. "I held the pen on every deal he made. I never thought about what the pen could do."

The room waited.

"He did sell me. That's not in question. It is in your record, and he has never denied it." I looked at Damon. "I'm not going to vote for revocation because of what he did to me."

A murmur ran along the gallery.

Damon looked up sharply.

"I'm going to vote because of what is possible. A wolf with no pack and no family lives on one Alpha's private word. If he withdraws it, she loses her housing, her work and her child by dawn. There are two hundred wolves in this city standing on a word like that right now."

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