Chapter 10: The Bite

The east gate yard was full by the time we got there.

Half the school had come out to watch, and they stood in a wide ring on the red gravel, whispering.

An Ironwood truck was parked across the gateway.

Four wolves stood beside it in their dark pack jackets.

Dunstan was at the front of them, with his arms folded.

And in the cab of the truck, with the window rolled down, sat my father.

I had not seen him in two months.

He looked older, and he looked tired, and he was looking straight at me.

"Cassandra," he said.

"Dad."

He got out of the truck slowly, stiff from the long drive.

"I've come to take you home."

"No."

"I have the law on my side." He took a folded sheet from his coat. "An unmated daughter below Alpha rank remains in her father's keeping.

I've filed the recall with the Territory clerk. It's already stamped."

"I'm eighteen."

"It doesn't matter."

"I'm a student here."

"You're a Beta," my father said. "Your public record says so. Come home, Cassandra."

A murmur ran around the yard.

Somebody said, "A recall? Do those still exist?"

Somebody else said, "She's got a file sealed by the registry. Why would they seal a Beta?"

My father's eyes flicked toward the voice.

For a moment, only a moment, I saw something cross his face.

It was not anger.

It was fear.

"You have until sundown," he said, and nodded to Dunstan. "Get her bag."

"I don't have a bag here that I'd leave with you."

Keep reading free with an account. Start I Hid My Supreme Rank, Regret of the Pack from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.