Chapter 24 · Threats in the Shadow

The word hit the table before I got my chair pulled out.

“Blood-tether.”

Elder Voss said it slow, like he wanted to taste it. Then the grandfather smile — the one that's been lying to this pack for forty years — and he folded his spotted hands on the oak.

“Nine days past the severance. Nine days, and the Black Ridge bond still won't hold. So we settle it. One cut, one drop from each of you. Bond's dead, the blood stays black. Bond's live—” He shrugged. “Lights up like a struck match. Then we all know what your Alpha's been keeping in his own house.”

My hand went into my pocket. Reflex. The leather pouch was still there — pennyroyal and silverweed ground to green paste, the only thing holding me upright since the pump station.

I let go. Too slow. Kaelen's eyes dropped to my hand, then came back up.

“No,” Torin said.

He didn't shout it. That's what turned the room to ice. He shifted one step and his shoulder came between me and the long table, and the whole council forgot how to breathe at once.

“You don't get to say no.” Voss's smile didn't budge.