For a long moment, I can't make my voice work.
"What do you mean it wasn't me," I finally manage, the words scraping raw against my throat. "The bond activated around me. The alphas knelt for me. The Council put me on trial, not either of you. Everything tonight has revolved around me, whether I wanted it to or not."
"I know," Wren says quickly, guilt written plain across her face. "I'm not saying the alphas' bond to you isn't real, April. It is. I could feel it the moment I walked into that chapel, four separate threads of devotion running straight through you like roots through soil. That part isn't in question."
"Then what is?" Jodan asks, moving to sit beside me, his presence steady and grounding even as dread coils tighter in my chest.
Wren hesitates, glancing toward the boy, who
