My fingers slipped once on the royal seal before it broke. I read the first three lines twice.
*Subject: Selene of the Red Creek Pack.*
*Medical Assessment: Subject is physiologically non-pregnant.*
*Analysis of biological sample recovered from scene of alleged miscarriage: Origin identified as *Lepus*, the common field rabbit.*
Rabbit’s blood.
The report slipped from my hand. Around me, the Elders shouted over the dying Spring. Selene had never been pregnant. The blood on the stairs came from a rabbit.
My Beta held out a polished memory crystal. "The healer Selene bribed kept this as insurance."
My hand shook as I fed energy into the crystal. The healer's private room appeared above it. Selene stood beside his desk with a purse of gold.
*"Make it convincing,"* she said. *"Every wo
