Chapter 164

• Dane
• The Ironclaw pack legal chamber was a mass of pandemonium, and the black stone walls seemed to pulse with heat from the flickering torchlight, the carved wolf heads above seeming to snarl in life, their wood eyes shining with hunger.
• The air blended with clouds of musk, steel, and the acrid scent of dust from the coming war, the council's yells and clangs of the guard's armor merged as a symphony of immediacy. I stood there stuck before Luisa, my throne out of my head, my heart a war drum, her words—I want to fight alongside you—still ringing in my ears, a clarion note of defiance that mesmerized me and terrified me.