Maybe he was wrong. Maybe the bond had misfired somehow. Maybe he'd felt something that wasn't what he thought it was and he'd made an announcement to sixty pack members based on a mistake.
I looked at him and he was still looking at me and the thing in his expression was still there, steady and present and not going anywhere, and I thought about the way he'd asked my permission before he touched me, the way he'd given me a second when I went rigid, the way he'd said her name is Isla in that room full of hierarchy members who'd spent five years calling me everything except my name.
Maybe he wasn't wrong.
The room was still full of pack members processing what they'd just been told. I could feel the shock of it around me without looking directly at any of them. I could feel Maren's parti
