“I worked here as a policy aide,” I went on. “Most of you know that. I’m the son of Minister Hale. I sat in your galleries and wrote your speeches and watched you decide how the world outside these walls should look.”
I let my gaze move, not stopping on any one face too long. This wasn’t about picking individuals. It was about refusing to let them pretend I wasn’t talking about them.
“I was bitten,” I said. “Bitten because I followed one of your trusted scientists—Dr. Helena Voss—into a restricted facility beneath this city. I saw cages full of wolves who were not feral until she and her people pumped something into them.”
Someone near the back actually dropped their glass. It shattered against the wood floor. No one moved to clean it up.
“I saw them chained,” I continued. “I saw them drugged. I saw a man watch as a wolf was released into the room with me. I saw him wait until it bit me and then order that I be sedated and removed. That man’s name was Lord Ashcroft.”
My father’s hand gripped the glass in his hand, knuckles white. A shocked murmur came over the crowd before it quieted again.
“I woke up in Ireland,” I said. “Alone. Confused. And as far as this city was concerned, I was dead.”
I paused, then added, “They told my father I died. I found out years later that they told him there was nothing left to recover.”
I looked down at him again.
He looked back, eyes bright with emotion.
“But I didn’t die in London, and I didn’t die in Ireland,” I said, straightening, voice rising again. “I came close. Ireland is a dangerous place these days. But I’m here to prove to you that not all wolves go feral.”
On cue, Zara and Sera emerged from the side with the first of the stabilized wolves. Lady Faera walked with her spine straight and her chin up, Jonah just behind her, Lionel hovering like he wanted to disappear and couldn’t.
A ripple ran through the crowd as names and faces clicked into memory.
“Lady Faera?” someone said, astonished. “But you?—”
“Were sent to Ireland after they made me go feral,” she said.
Jonah lifted a hand. “Jonah Pike.”
Lionel simply waved.
“These people,” I said, gesturing to them, “were written off. Declared irretrievably feral. Shipped out so you wouldn’t have to see what happened next. And yet here they stand. Not because of anything you did. But because someone else chose to help them.”
Eamon stepped to the front of the room and cleared his throat. “They were made to go feral using a drug ordered and authorized by Ashcroft and developed by Dr. Voss. We treated them with a healing serum. Their cognitive functionreturned completely. Their memories remained intact. They remember being bitten. They remember who madethem go feral.”
The hall was very, very quiet now.
“What you’ve been told is the inevitable outcome of being bitten,” I said, “is an engineered fallacy. On purpose. A lie repeated over and over for years.Iam a bitten wolf,” I said. “Theyare bitten wolves. We are standing here in front of you, calm and in control, not tearing this room apart and devouring all of you.”
I let that settle.
“Wolves donotalways go feral,” I stated steadily. “That narrative has been convenient, but it is not true. People in your employ have beenintentionally inducingferality, lying about it, and using those lies to justify everything from deportations to executions. It has been an exercise in social control. And it has worked. Until now.”
Tamsin stepped onto the dais beside me and took my hand.
“It. Stops. Now.”
CHAPTER 29
Nox
I leaned one shoulder against a decorative column and kept my eyes on the perimeter of the room. That was my job tonight.
That was when I saw Commander Dane.
He slipped through a side entrance wearing a dark coat, his hair neat, surrounded by a handful of men. His movements seemed purposeful. He was up to something and I didn’t like that.
