A lump rises in my throat. “I know.” I hold his hand, never wanting to let go.
Inside the room are several benches facing a tiered stand. There are at least ten council members seated in the stands. I take a seat beside Lyall with Fergus to my left while Lyall’s pack find seats around the room. Gunnar is already seated in the back between two guards, muzzle removed but arms still bound.
Councilwoman Harding bangs her gavel. “This meeting is in session. Do you consent to share the memories of the events that occurred prior to your exile with the Erikson Pack?”
How will they react? Wulfric seemed remorseful, but that doesn’t mean he’ll believe my side of the story. Lyall puts his arm around my shoulders, and I lean into the comfort offered.
“I do, Councilwoman.”
She motions to the empty seat beside her. “Then be seated.”
Knees a little shaky, I approach the chair and lower myself into it. When a man wearing a golden torc like all the other council members approaches my chair, I grip onto the armrests until my knuckles whiten. What if this is a trick? What if they take my memories all over again?
“Relax, please,” the man says. “I’m going to touch the back of your head. You’ll feel a slight tingling sensation and some lightheadedness. This is all normal.”
I look at Lyall and exhale slowly. “Go for it.”
The witch’s hand clasps the back of my skull. A tingling feeling spreads from where he touches me down to my toes. My instinct is to bolt, but a wave of dizziness hits me, making me close my eyes as the room tilts.
“Traitor!”
My eyes fly open. Men and women in antique clothes form a circle below the stands. They’re transparent, like how ghosts look in movies.
“I-It’s true,” says a voice. My voice. In the center of the circle is my past self, hands raised as the crowd advances on him. “I used you filthy beasts! All of you. I was never your pack. My real family was always the one Alpha Erik stole me from!”
“No… this isn’t true! It can’t be,” says a much younger Wulfric, shoving through the crowd to face my past self. “Tell me you didn’t do it, Soren.”
“I did, and I did it alone. Lyall had nothing to do with it. He’s always been weak. Soft. I knew if he found I was meeting with my father, he’d rat me out.”
I wince at the harshness in my own voice. It’s no wonder the pack believed me. I’m not making a good case for my own innocence.
Wulfric shakes his head, chest heaving. “So… all this time you were just pretending?”
My past self barks a laugh. “I did what I had to in order to survive until my real family could rescue me. As if I could ever live side by side with animals.”
Wulfric stumbles back, one hand going to his stomach.
“My family is dead because of you!” a younger Gunnar shouts, lunging forward, only to be restrained by his aunt and another pack member. “Let me go! I’ll rip the flesh from his bones!”
“Kill him!” another roars. The crowd erupts into chaos, running at my past self, shouting curses.
Wulfric puts himself in front of me and brings the pack to attention with a roar that rattles my eardrums. “Enough! Anders, put him in the basement. Make sure he can’t escape. I will decide what to do with him.”
Anders grabs my past self by the scruff of his neck and hauls him out of view.
That was hard enough to watch, but I know the worst is yet to come. There’s an unpleasant numbing sensation at the base of my skull as the memory plays on until wearrive at the moment Lyall finds me in chains. It breaks my heart all over again to see the pain in his face as my past self explains what I’ve done. I glance at the faces of the council members, trying to tell by their expressions if they believe what I told Lyall.
It’s hard to tell. Many of them watch the memory play out as if they’re watching a dull documentary. Some take notes. I’m relieved to see at least one council member dab her eyes with her sleeve.
“I think we’ve seen enough,” Harding says, hands laced on her desk.
The witch removes his hand from my head, and the irritating tingling sensation finally goes away, leaving behind a dull throb that isn’t much better. In the seat below, Lyall watches me, hands in fists, eyes full of desperation. Behind him, Wulfric has his head hung low, Kieran’s hand on his shoulder. Gunnar catches my eye, but the anger I was expecting isn’t there. There’s a slump in his shoulders, a bitter twist to his lips.
“I want to clarify that the council has never seen this portion of the memories.” Harding clears her throat. “During her interrogation, Helena Carwright confessed to tampering with the evidence to show only Soren’s confession of guilt. Yours was not the only case she had skewed against shifters. I am deeply sorry for the turmoil her actions have caused your pack.”
Angry growls rumble from Lyall. Anders leans over the bench and squeezes his shoulder.
“Alpha Erikson. After reviewing this evidence, has your belief in Soren’s guilt changed at all?”
