My Alpha Parents Gave My Tuition Away, So the Royal Command Took Me novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Pack Stands Up

The yard behind the garage was full of wolves.

Teague slowed the truck to a crawl, and Hollis leaned forward in the passenger seat and said, "Count them."

"I can't," Teague said. "There are too many."

I got out and stood in the headlights.

Two hundred people stood in the dark gravel, in work boots and nightshirts and coats thrown over pajamas.

The mechanic stood at the front, wiping his hands on his apron.

"I told you they were all here," he said.

"What is this?"

"My lease." He pulled a folded paper out of his pocket and tore it in half. "Your father can't evict a man the whole pack stands behind. I'm done being afraid of him."

A low murmur of agreement went through the yard.

A young woman pushed out of the crowd with a boy of about eight on her hip.

I knew her from the bakery.

She had never once looked at me in twenty-two years.

"Linnea," she said. "I need to show you something."

She held out a small glass bottle with a faded label in my mother's neat hand.

The liquid inside was pale gold.

"Your mother sold me this when my son was five," she said, her voice cracking. "She said he was a weak little wolf, and this would help his wolf come in."

My stomach turned over.

"It never came," the woman said. "Three years. He's never shifted. He's not weak, is he?"

I took the boy's chin gently in my hand and looked into his eyes.

They were bright and frightened.

"No," I said. "He's not weak. She was holding him down, same as me."

The woman covered her mouth and wept.

Behind her, a voice rose from the crowd.

"She sold it to my daughter, too."

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