Research was going to help me figure out what I needed to say. I read that whole damned Werewolf Bible front to back. And then I read a couple other reference books that Mr. Dawson had given me. I took notes, and at the end of it, I wasn’t numb anymore, but I was a little pissed.
I stomped my way from my room to the cabin. Dastien had said he’d be there prepping for the questions with Mr. Dawson. They believed that I wouldn’t be held accountable for anything, but Dastien had known better than to bite me. And after I attacked Imogene, that was on his head, too. The whole thing was bullshit; Imogene’s father had only registered his complaint to take the focus off his attempted coup. Which had failed.
As long as Dastien could be held accountable, so could I. Dastien couldn’t take the blame for me and my actions, like almost ripping out Imogene’s throat, but I knew he’d try.
The truth was we were both in serious shit, and he’d known all along. Everyone had been patting me on the head saying it’d all be fine and not to worry.
Fur rippled and disappeared along my arms with every step I took. When I got to Dastien’s cabin, I didn’t knock. He sat at the table with Donovan, Sebastian, Mr. Dawson and an old man I didn’t know. But I didn’t care.
I threw the book at Dastien, but he caught it before it hit him in the face. “We’re so fucking screwed. According to Chapter Seven, paragraph fourteen, what you did is inexcusable. IN. EXCUSE. ABLE. Not even a little bit okay. As in of course they have a case. I read about four other cases similar to ours—minus the whole True Mate thing—and they were killed. As in no longer breathing! And you’ve been telling me not to worry? Just write the speech, you said. They’ll let us be together, you said.” I paused to catch my breath. “Are you insane? High? What? Please tell me. Because from what I’ve been reading all morning, we’re in a whole heap of shit.”
“Cherie—”
“Don’t you cherie me! I know what I read. How could you lie?” I spun to Mr. Dawson, pointing a finger at him. “And you. You said everything would be fine.” I turned to Sebastian and Donovan. “And you two didn’t say a damned thing either. I talked to you yesterday, Donovan. Told you I was worried. And you said to write from the heart and it’d all be grand. Grand,” I said the last in my best Irish accent. I was coming off as a little crazed, so I took a moment to catch my breath. “Don’t think I’m scared of you and won’t say anything. Everyone treats me like a child. It’ll be fine, they say. Don’t worry, they say. Well fuck that.”
My blood was on fire. Fear and anger and frustration had all melded together to form one giant ball of bad emotion. I was out of breath again, panting hard.
“You done?” Mr. Dawson said.
“I don’t know.” I couldn’t think behind the mad.
Donovan started to laugh, and I shot him a look. “Stop laughing! It’s not funny.” I backed power with the command before I could stop myself.
Donovan’s laugh instantly died. “Well, that’s the first time someone’s put me in my place in quite a while.”
“Did the command get you, Dono?” the stranger asked.
“I’ll be damned, but it did. Shite. It definitely did.”
Maybe that wasn’t the best thing to do, but I couldn’t help myself. Now everyone was watching me like I was some fascinating creature. I didn’t like it one bit. “What?”
“What, indeed.”
“This is what I mean,” Sebastian said. His thick German accent turned the ‘w’ to a ‘v’ sound.
The staring made me calm down a little. “Sorry.” I paused. That was a lie. “I’m not really all that sorry.” I crossed my arms, waiting for someone to address the real issue at hand.
“What he did was bad. Yes, inexcusable. But there are exceptions to every rule, and we agreed that you were the exception,” Sebastian said. “That’s why Donovan and I came to see you. If there had been a need for all of this, we would’ve said so then. We would’ve called the Tribunal and made an example of the two of you, but instead we found you. Your bond with him was weaker then, but even so, we suspected what would happen if it were to strengthen.”
I swallowed. Sebastian’s calm words got rid of most of my anger, but all I was left with was fear. “Do I need to be worried about this? Beyond whatever Luciana is going to say? Be honest.”
“Maybe,” Sebastian said. “If you’d gone through with the ceremony yesterday, then no. But now…”
