CELESTE
The meeting left me spinning. The council’s chamber emptied slowly, voices fading into murmurs down the corridor. My heart thudded in my chest, and I could feel a strange unease crawling under my skin.
Back in Blood Moon, I had been everyone’s tool. I had spent every waking hour trying not to anger the council and serving their egos just to keep them from humiliating me. But now, Knox’s Council had just defended me. Part of me wanted to believe it, and the other part screamed that it was all a lie and that loyalty like that was never real or not for someone like me.
Knox, too, had kept all our dealings a secret. It was weird. I’d been around enough Alphas to know how they handled things like this.
Knox caught my eye, and I said stiffly, “We need to talk.”
He nodded, unreadabl
