Rejected, Replaced and Forgotten novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Blackwater

Blackwater sat on its lake.

The great hall had a ceiling lost in smoke and a hearth I could have parked a cart in.

Forty Lycans stood in it in their furs, and the first thing I heard in my new life was the word "stray."

"A pack-born girl in a servant's dress," said a broad duke in red, not troubling to lower his voice.

"The King has lost a war with his own eyes."

"She smells of Stonefall wool," said a thin one beside him.

"There's no chair for her on the dais, Majesty. There never has been a chair for a pack wolf."

I felt Osian go still beside me, and I put two fingers on his sleeve.

"May I?"

"Please," he said. "I've been wanting to hear you do this since the cookhouse."

I walked out into the middle of the floor.

My boots were muddy, and my braid was coming down, and every eye was hostile.

"Your Grace," I said to the red one. "What does the law say about a person who saves a Lycan King?"

He laughed, and it was a kind of cough.

"It says a great many things."

"Then tell me one."

"That the debt is the King's to settle," said the thin duke. "In land or gold."

"Is that right?"

I turned to the old man by the hearth in a chronicler's grey robe, who had been holding a book against his chest the whole time.

← Chapter 19 · All chapters · Chapter 21 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend