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If looks could kill, both of them would have been stone dead.
“All right, that’s better,” Packmaster Sanders clapped his hands together. “Let’s get back to business. You’ve all heard the evidence against this Wayward Bitch. All in favor of stoning her say Aye!”
The crowd erupted with a huge, unanimous shout of “AYE!”
“Good. All in favor of pardoning her?” Packmaster Saunders paused, lifting his eyebrows.
There wasn’t a single sound.
Oh God—I was going to die.
I stood there, naked and alone and afraid and wondered if being stoned to death would hurt. Judging by the stones that had already hit me, the answer was, yes—a lot.
“All right, good!” Packmaster Saunders said, nodding his head briskly. “Let me just step down here and all of you can get your rocks ready—”
And then a voice from the edge of the crowd shouted,
“Wait! You cannot kill her—she is the Prophesied Bitch of the Legends!”
NINETEEN
It was Dr. Keller. The little old woman came stumping through the crowd, pushing people out of the way and most of them moved quickly and respectfully. It was clear her word carried some weight with this community. I wondered warily if I could dare to hope that she might get me out of this horrible predicament.
“Dr. Keller?” Packmaster Saunders looked down at her uncertainly. “What are you doing here?”
“Stopping this idiocy. You—help me up to the rock!” she demanded imperiously, holding up her arms.
At a nod from the Packmaster, the two men who had taped my mouth and bound my ankles and wrists leaned down and hauled her up.
“Good.” Dr. Keller brushed the wrinkles out of her white lab coat and straightened her glasses. “Now, I have things to say,” she told Saunders.
“Uh, well, we’re kind of in the middle of a trial, Doctor,” he said uncertainly.
“Yes—you are planning to kill the very one who could save you!” she snapped. “How long have I been the Pack’s official doctor? You must listen to me now or you will regret it!”
This seemed to get everyone’s attention and Packmaster Saunders nodded meekly.
“Okay, well, sure,” he muttered. “What do you have to say?”
“First that the charges against this girl should be dropped,” she began. There were some boos and hisses, but she stared fiercely at the crowed and exclaimed, “You will be quite and let me finish!”
That shut them up and she went on.
“As I say, the charges must be dropped.”
“But she was caught right in the act of breaking one of the Unbreakable Laws, Doctor!” Packmaster Saunders protested. “I mean, I don’t want to be, uh, crude but her Blood-guardian was actually about to breed her when we caught them!”
“That is because her Heat Cycle is at its peak and she has inadvertently imprinted on her guardian,” Dr. Keller said briskly. “She wants only him and it is my opinion she ought to be allowed to have him.”
“What?” Saunders’s eyes went wide. “But Dr. Keller, that’s incest.”
She glared at him fiercely.
“You and I and all of us here know that there is no actual blood connection between the two of them. He was the Blood Brother of her father—so what? They only exchanged a few drops of blood and a vow—that does not mean he cannot breed his Blood-ward!”
“Yes, it does! By Pack Law, they’d be committing incest!” Packmaster Saunders didn’t appear willing to budge on this point and from the mutinous murmurs of the crowd, they felt the same.
Well, so much for Dr. Keller saving my ass, I thought dismally.
But the doctor wasn’t done yet.
“Listen to me!” she snapped. “You must listen! The main reason to pardon this girl is that she is the Prophesied Bitch! The one who will conceive the Primordial Wolf and carry him in her womb!”
There was a collective gasp from the crown and Packmaster Saunders looked stunned.
“Dr. Keller—you can’t be serious!”
“Yes, of course I am serious!” she exclaimed. “Would I be here if I were not? I tell you, I tested her myself! At first I did not dare believe it—I checked and checked my sources again and again. But it is true—this girl will give birth to the Were who will revitalize not just this Pack but Packs everywhere! So you must not kill her or she cannot do that!”
“And…you’re sure of this?” Saunders asked.
Dr. Keller stamped her foot impatiently.
“Did I not just say it? How many times must I repeat myself? Let the girl go—give her to her Guardian for breeding. It does not matter who the father of her child is—he will become the Primordial Wolf no matter who breeds her.”
“Is that so?” Packmaster Saunders had a gleam in his piggy little eyes I didn’t like one bit.
“Yes, that is so!” Dr. Keller exclaimed. “So will you set her free or not?”
Bless her! I felt my heart go out to her. She was trying so hard to get me set free and she was possibly the only one in this whole fucked up community besides the Packmaster that everyone would listen to.
