Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 114617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
“But what about Nia?”
One name, and silence fell again.
“What about Holly and Mr. Hall? What about the pathetic, sycophantic worms she wants to crush under her boots— Oh, wait, that’s all of you.”
Tracy backed down, her righteous fury bleeding away.
“Castor might’ve been a bad guy who deserved what he got.” A steady finger leveled on me. “But so is she.”
“That’s enough,” Ava spoke up. “We’ve heard all we need to hear from all of you. Let’s vote. The charges are the murder of Nia Dole. The murder of Warren Hall. The murder of Holly Fitch. The murder of Castor Tahan.”
Soon the soft scritch-scritch-scritch of pen and pencil on paper filled the room. There was no talking. No whispering among themselves. Wolf hearing made that pointless. Instead, the epsilons had to write their verdict down, pass it down to the end, and then the final person read them all out. In our world, they only needed a majority to find me guilty. If they tied, this circus went on for even longer until they finally decided one way or another.
Rising to her feet, Ava cleared her throat. “For the murder of Nia Dole, we find ten to zero: not guilty.”
“What!” Orion blurted.
“For the murder of Warren Hall, we find ten to zero: not guilty,” Ava continued on, ignoring the string of obscenities that came from Edric, Nyx, Paxton, and the rising Badr. “For the murder of Holly Fitch, we find ten to zero: not guilt.
“And for the murder of Castor Tahan—”
Badr sounded off before she finished saying his name.
“We find ten to zero—”
“Don’t you fucking dare,” he yelled.
“Not guilty.”
Badr roared up, fur bursting from his back as his wolf fed on his fury. “This is a joke. All of it!”
I moved slowly, gaze fixed on one thing and one thing only.
“I never should’ve played along. None of you get to decide whether or not my brother deserves justice. None of you get to say whether or not he was a good man. He was! I knew him better than anyone. And if you all are too chickenshit to stand up for what’s right.”
I dove for the jewelry box.
Badr whipped around, ensnaring me around the waist and hauling me over his shoulder. “I’ll do it myself.”
“Her punishment starts now,” Orion said, slapping the box closed.
“Don’t!”
He set the entire thing aflame.
My jaw cracked—scream trapped in my throat. The world went white, narrowing on a single point, single moment, single thought—
He’s dead.
My wolf burst from my skin, ripping free of Badr’s grip. I launched off his back and heard him go flying, snarling as his body thumped and skidded over the marble. Three hundred pounds of angry wolf landed on Orion, and the pain exploded in me. Arms, chest, legs—it came down on me like a freight train.
But I didn’t care. I didn’t care if Luame broke every bone in my body, as long as I broke his.
Orion shifted and threw me—flinging me off with his hindlegs.
We circled each other around the dais, drool dripping from our snarling maws. Our wolves were in charge now. Only the human had powers. I couldn’t phase as a wolf. Orion couldn’t wield fire. That meant if I wanted to hurt him, I had to fuck him up the hard way, and my wolf was only too happy to.
My fates and their terrible treatment of me was degrading the bonds faster than they did while we were apart. Over the last week, the times she tried to drop my pants for them halved in two, but the destruction of my mom’s jewelry box and her letters... my wolf was done.
Of course she was. She was her mom too.
I pounced, leaping over the dais and sinking teeth and claws into Orion’s spine. We both yelped viciously—pain raking across my own back. Still, I clamped harder.
A jaw clamped on my leg and tore me off, throwing me across the room. I crashed into the opposite wall and collapsed on the floor in a shower of wood, paint, and plaster. I clambered up and yelped—my ruined leg buckling under my weight.
Before me, four wolves fell in line—growling, menacing, charging straight at me.
“Guys, stop,” Edric bellowed, wholly human. “Calm down!”
I turned to face them head-on, dragging my useless leg with me. I couldn’t run, but when they caught me, I’d fight. I’d bite, claw, rip, snap, and take as good as I got.
Paxton, Orion, Nyx, and Badr launched through the air—
—and were hit with a wave of fur and teeth.
Ten wolves took them down and out—seven tackling them and three standing guard in front of me.
My fates shifted fast, throwing off my defenders.
“Ava, what the fuck are you doing!” I don’t think I ever heard Badr angrier, and that was saying something.
The gorgeous ebony wolf disappeared, leaving the lithe, graceful human she was in her place. “What does it look like I’m doing?” Ava replied. “Protecting my high priestess.”