Chapter 149

• The rest of the ceremony passed in a blur—or at least, I assumed it did. My mind was too preoccupied to register much of it. My gaze drifted to the figures gathered at the foot of the hill, but all I could focus on was the monstrous cruelty of my father. He had sold off a part of his own pack, discarded those who had once stood beside my mother when she came to the Southern Moon Pack. It wasn’t the first time he had done it. He had betrayed her once before—when he killed her. But what could be more disgraceful than reducing the remaining members of her old pack to mere slaves?
• The thought of sharing his blood made my stomach twist in disgust. I despised the part of me that came from him. But if I had inherited his strength, then I would use it against him—against every vile act he had ever committed.
• Kenzo’s fingers remained laced with mine throughout the formalities, a silent claim, a quiet assertion of ownership. I let him. Not out of conscious choice, but because I had no energy to resist. I stood still, my eyes glazing over as they skimmed over the crowd, seeing yet not seeing. Their voices were distant echoes in my ears, drowned out by the storm raging inside me. I might not have noticed when the ceremony ended had it not been for Kenzo’s gentle tug on my hand.