Leaving My Alpha Husband in Ice Cold Regret novel · Chapter 8 of 32

Chapter 8: The Hearing

The hearing started at noon, in the same hall where I had called the Rite.

Someone had stripped the anniversary cloth off the long table.

Six elders sat behind it on a bench, with Ilse in the center chair as the Alpha's mother and the old herbalist at the far end, hands folded on her stick.

Sixty wolves filled the benches.

I stood alone in the open space in front of the table in my own clothes, with Bess's shoulder against mine and Halvard leaning on the back wall by the door.

"We are met," Ilse said, "because a serious charge has been laid. The Luna's Rite was called under a false pretense."

"I haven't been the Luna since last night," I said. "And the pretense was your son's."

"Sit, Neve."

"I'll stand."

Ilse folded her hands.

"The Rite is only valid if the caller is herself faithful," she said. "This is in the law. I'll call my first witness."

Delphine came forward from the family bench.

She had put on a grey dress, plain and modest, and she kept her eyes on the floor.

"I didn't want to say it," she began.

"Say it," Ilse said.

"Last autumn I was gathering yarrow by the lake at dusk. I saw the Luna come out of the Warden's cabin." Her voice trembled just right. "She was laughing, and her hair was down. He walked her to the trees. He kissed her hand."

A murmur went through the hall.

I looked at Halvard.

He raised one eyebrow at me, very slightly.

"I've known the Warden three days," I said clearly. "Last autumn I wouldn't have known which door was his."

"Two hunters can confirm," Ilse said.

Two men stood up from the second bench.

They were young, and they stared at their boots.

"We saw her," the first one mumbled. "On the lake road. In October."

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