The panel did not ask Leo to enter the hall. I was grateful for that. Too many adults had already used his existence to justify what they wanted.

His rights could be decided without putting a three-year-old in front of a room full of wolves. The Riverbend panel member p

The apothecary ledger arrived under three seals. Frostmere. Ashfall. Riverbend. No Blackthorn seal. No White Moon seal. That was the first thing I checked. The second was the date. Three days before the Council dinner.

Marin laid the copied page beside the original V

The priest entered under neutral guard. I recognized him immediately. Three years had thinned his face and silvered his beard, but memory did the rest. The ceremonial blade in his hand.

His voice over the altar. If the Alpha interrupts a severing after the first cut, the