weight as hers.â
Malone paused to shoot me a calm, cold glance.âMore, considering that I represent an entire Pride and Iâve never been convicted of a crime, neither of which can be said about Faythe Sanders. And my sworn word is that none of this is true. I never met with a thunderbird, nor did I sell out one of my fellow Alphas and his men. I donât know where they really got this feather, but I suspect it was soaked in Lance Pierceâs blood when a Flight of thunderbirds slaughtered him for a crime he didnât commit, which they could never have done if sheââ the look he shot at me that time could have burned right through me ââhadnât handed him over as a scapegoat. But regardless, we canât in good conscience accuse an upstanding enforcerâa dead enforcer, who canât be here to defend himselfâof murder. I wonât do it, and Iâll be sorely disappointed in any of you who fall for such an obvious attempt to railroad this council and postpone the vote we all came here for.â
Blackwell stood, leaning on his cane. âCalvin, you canât deny that this evidence carries some weight.â
âSome, yes,â Malone nodded gravely. âBut not enough. Itâs circumstantial evidence at best, presented by a girl of questionable morals whoâs already been convicted of a capital crime. We cannot afford to take her word at face value, and the only way to verify it is with testimony from the thunderbird I supposedly dealt with.â
My temper flared over the âquestionable moralsâ dig, but I couldnât fight that one without making a fool of myself and further humiliating Marc. And there was a bigger issue at stake.
The thunderbirds could only be contacted in person, and even if we had that kind of time to spare, I had no reason to believe the birds would actually testify. Theydidnât give a damn about our political turmoil, or any werecat injustices that didnât directly affect them.
There had to be someone else who could back me up. Someone whose word the council would have to accept. But my father hadnât actually heard what Brett said over the phone. The only ones who had were Marc and Jace, and Malone would no more accept their testimony than mine. Heâd remind everyone that the council had yet to recognize Marc as a Pride cat since his return, and if I brought Jace before them, Malone would call him biased and have the perfect excuse to call me a whore in front of the entire assemblage.
âIf what Ms. Sanders says is true, surely she can present this thunderbird for us to question. Right?â Malone looked at me expectantly, and to my complete outrage, I realized that people were listening to him. A couple of the AlphasâDavidson and Gardnerâseemed unsure of what to believe, but Mitchell and Pierce aimed incensed glares my way.
I was at a complete loss for words. If I admitted that the thunderbirds probably wouldnât testify, we could kiss the case against Malone goodbye. But if I promised them something I couldnât deliver, Iâd be blowing another huge hole in my own credibility. So I said the only thing that felt true beneath so many restrictions. âI can try.â
âGood.â Malone gave a perfunctory nod. âWe look forward to that testimony, at the earliest possibly occasion. But in the meantime, I see no reason to put off the vote based on unconfirmed, unsubstantiated, circumstantial evidence against an Alpha who doesnât have a single blemish on his record.â
âButâ¦â I stammered, my hands already going coldfrom shock. In all our strategizing, weâd never thought Malone would be able to just ignore our charges and carry on. And our evidence wasnât uncorroborated. But Marc and Jace werenât suitable witnesses, and no one else had heard Brettâs phone call, or Lanceâs confession.
Except Kaciâ¦
No. I
Susan Anne Mason
Bobby Akart
Heather Killough-Walden
Candace Blevins
Brian Rathbone
Magdalen Nabb
Alexis Morgan
David Warner
Lisa Rayne
Lee Brazil