Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87502 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87502 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
“All right, you all saw it!” Harris shouted above the boos and jeers of the crowd. “This filthy slut shamed the memory of our honored Pack Leader! She pretended to be so high and mighty—called herself a ‘Moon Widow’ but all the time she was screwing Carter Jamison’s nephew!”
The boos and jeers got even louder, and someone threw something at me that was wet and smelly. It splattered on the white canvas I had wrapped around my body and left a gooey red stain right in the middle of my chest.
A rotten tomato—that’s what it was, I thought, looking down at it. Would this nightmare never end? I was actually beginning to think I was dreaming again—how else could I be caught in such a horrible, compromising position?
“Enough, enough!” Harris called, raising his hands to quiet the crowd. “Now that we know what a slut, Lady Jamison is, we need to think of a proper punishment.”
“Stone her!” someone in the crowd shouted. “That’s the rightful penalty for adultery!”
“But I didn’t commit adultery!” I cried. “Carter is dead! I never did anything while he was alive.”
“You dishonored his memory!” someone else shouted.
“You befouled the sacred name of Moon Widow,” Harris growled at me. “And you must be punished for it!”
“Fine.” I lifted my chin and glared at him. “Punish me—I don’t care. But leave Kor out of it. None of this is his fault. I…I seduced him. Everything you saw—it’s all on me. He never wanted me until…until I offered myself to him.”
“That’s not true!” The new voice coming from just beyond the crowd made me whip my head around.
It was Kor—he was tied securely with thick ropes and bound in silver chains, which I knew weakened any Were. But he was glaring at the crowd defiantly as the four Alphas tasked with holding him dragged him forward.
“Ah, it’s the pup.” An evil grin spread across Harris Murdoch’s face. “What was that you were saying just a minute ago?” he asked Kor. “When our Moon Widow was admitting that she seduced you?”
“Vivienne never seduced me,” Kor said, glaring at Harris. “I wanted her from the first minute I saw her and there’s a reason why!”
Harris frowned.
“What are you talking about? A reason besides you being a horny young pup?”
“Yes!” Kor said shortly, ignoring the jab. “Many of you know that there was a prophecy that a woman with gold-ringed eyes would give a male of the Jamison line many heirs—that was the reason that Vivienne was sold to my Uncle Carter in the first place.”
“But she failed!” someone shouted. “She never gave him any heirs!”
“Because he was the wrong Jamison!” Kor snapped. “I’ve been reading in his library—researching our genealogy and the lineage of the Jamison line. If you read the prophecy, you’ll see that what the soothsayer actually said was this:
One shall come to meet the lass
Gold ringed eyes shall come to pass
He the younger of the two
Her womb shall quicken for him true
At once the Mate-Bond will attach
Heart-to-heart the two will latch
Many heirs for him she’ll bear
Their love is lasting, true, and fair.”
“So?” Harris glared at him. “So you found a poem in your uncle’s library—who cares?”
“You should, because what it means is that Vivienne was given as a bride to the wrong Jamison,” Kor repeated. “The prophecy says that a woman with gold-ringed eyes would give many heirs to a younger male of the Jamison Line and that there would be an instant connection between them—a Mate-Bond.” He looked at me, his heart in his eyes. “I felt that connection the very first time I saw Vivienne’s face. And I’m younger than her—which my Uncle Carter wasn’t. He was much older. He was the wrong Jamison. It wasn’t until I came along that the prophecy could be fulfilled!”
There were murmurs among the crowd as people considered this new information. I was shocked myself. I knew that Kor had been researching his family tree—could what he said really be true? Had he been waiting to tell me when we had finally gotten away from Blackridge?
But Harris Murdoch’s face didn’t change—in fact, if anything, his expression grew crueler.
“Who cares about a bunch of poetry—it’s all nonsense!” he shouted. “The facts of the matter are that these two have been fucking each other and defiling the memory of our esteemed Pack Leader. And for that, they must be punished!”
A cry went up and someone shouted,
“Stone them!” again.
Then the crowd took up the chant.
“Stone them…stone them…stone them…”
I saw people stooping and picking up rocks from the ground and I felt like I might be sick. I was cold all over and I started to shake. Oh Goddess of the moon, were they really going to kill us?
But apparently, Harris Murdoch had something else in mind.
“Enough!” he shouted at them all. “We’re not going to stone them—I have a better idea! We’re going to make them pay for what they’ve done.”