Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 69734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Pack hall is designed like a courtroom with a raised dais built in a semicircle at the front of the hall. Alpha Green sits in the middle, flanked by his council members in no particular order. The room isn’t opulent. Shifters aren’t generally rich. It has more of an Old West feel. Like I could be strung up and hanged at dawn if they so choose.
But banishment is the worst punishment for a shifter. We’re pack animals by nature. We rely on community. Once you’re banished from one pack, no other will take you in. Although that’s not completely true, since Garrett Green, Alpha Green’s banished son, formed his own misfit pack in Tucson and is known to take in other strays.
I keep my eyes lowered as I walk in and take the single chair placed in front of the council platform.
There’s a silence, no doubt intended to make me squirm.
I don’t.
I’m resigned to my fate.
“Asher, you know why you’re here.” Alpha Green’s tones hold deep disapproval.” What do you have to say for yourself?”
I shake my head. “Nothing, Alpha.”
“Excuse me?”
Wrong thing to say. I meant I had no excuse, but based on the thirteen frowns, they took my answer as disrespectful.
“I just mean that I did it. I deserve whatever punishment you deem fit.”
Based on the sounds of disapproval, that was still the wrong answer. I guess they wanted me to grovel or something. I don’t know. Diplomacy isn’t an art I ever mastered.
“Well, go and wait outside while we discuss what that punishment will be,” Alpha Green says.
I stand from my chair at the same time the door bursts open.
“This is a closed proceeding,” Alpha Green snaps.
The scent of jasmine and honey makes me whirl to see Lotta striding into the room holding a thick manila folder. Her eyes flash with determination.
It takes everything in me not to run to her. I need to sweep her into my arms. Get everything out on the table. My apologies. My heart. What she means to me. What I’d do for her.
Kill.
Die.
Even leave, if that’s what she wanted.
“I know. That’s why I’m here. I have something to say related to this case.”
“Closed proceeding means you don’t get a say,” her mom cries, obviously aghast at her daughter’s behavior.
“No, you will hear me on this.” I’ve never heard such strength come from Lotta. Her wolf is small. She’s quiet by nature. She doesn’t usually project this much power.
“Carlotta Ann. Get out of here right now.”
“What is it?” Alpha Green asks, overriding Lotta’s mom.
Lotta holds up the file in her hand triumphantly, like she’s just broken Nazi codes. “I have Asher’s file. A record of every disciplinary act he’s been issued.”
Oh, fuck. Shame burns in me. All the fights. The suspensions. The warnings. I’ve never been a model student.
What is she doing?
Lotta slaps the folder down on the table beside me, flashing me a quick, conspiratorial look that makes me forget my self-hatred as my heart bursts into flames.
She flips open the folder and grabs the note on top, reading from the file. “This is from third grade.” She waves the piece of paper in the air, then reads from it. “Asher held John Blackmore upside down by the ankles and shook him.”
My heart sinks, remembering the incident.
Lotta looks around at the council as if she’s just delivered good news. “Do you want to know why?”
When no one responds, she says, “I’ll tell you why! It says, When questioned, Asher explained he was trying to shake loose the pencil John took from his friend Sebastian.”
Clearly everyone in the room–including me–is having a so what? Moment.
She whips out another paper. “In fifth grade, Asher punched Nolan Sykes. Reason–Nolan pulled up the skirt of a classmate. Seventh grade–he got in a fight when someone picked on a human. Eighth grade–”
“I’m going to stop you there,” Alpha Green interrupts. “What’s your point?”
Lotta is undaunted by the council’s disapproval.
“My point is” –she jabs a finger at the folder– “I went through that file this afternoon. There are nearly thirty incidents of violence on Asher’s part and every. Single. One of them was because he was defending a weaker classmate.” She points at it again. “Every one of them.”
“It’s not an excuse–” her mom begins, but Lotta cuts across her.
“It’s alpha wolf behavior. It’s what an alpha does. And this instinct in Asher, it should have been nurtured. It should have been encouraged and honed into leadership by this pack. By you.” She points at Alpha Green now, and I fear he will banish the both of us.
He remains silent, though. Apparently considering her words.
She paces in front of them, like a courtroom lawyer. “Asher came from a violent household. Everyone here knows that. He wasn’t safe growing up. That’s the only reason I came forward and told you what his dad did to me.”