Chapter 17: The Tribunal

Ivy's POV

The three Alphas had come from the coast, the north and the eastern range.

They sat in a row at the long table on the dais, and none of them looked at the pack.

They looked at Godfrey.

The Council's witness stood at one end with her book and the typed page under her hand.

"This tribunal was called by Godfrey Hargrove," she said. "He has asked to be heard first."

Godfrey stood in front of the dais with his cane gone and one hand on the back of a chair.

Ronan had set him there and stepped away.

My husband stood a few feet to the side with his arms down, close enough that I felt him through the bond, steady and cold.

"I called this tribunal," Godfrey said, "because my grandson has put a stranger's word above his own family's."

The pack shifted behind me.

"The Danforth girl has bewitched him. She has lied for two years about a pup that was never going to come to term."

"Careful," the Alpha from the coast said quietly.

"She stood in my dining room and called me a murderer, and she sat at my right hand for two years first."

His eyes found me.

He had always looked at me with a host's warm smile.

Now he looked at me with a bare, shaking hatred, and I understood that it had been there all along and had only been polite.

"I poured that girl's wine," he said, "and she took it, and she ruined me."

I walked out of the crowd.

I hadn't planned to, and Hazel's hand brushed my sleeve as I went.

I stopped in front of the dais, three feet from him.

"You asked to be heard," I said. "So hear this."

"I came to your table for two years because I thought you were being kind to me."

"I thought it was your way of saying you were sorry my father was dead."

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