Page 17 of Shifters Reckoning

logan

“Shit. Beheaded? Who was beheaded?”

If my mate had approved a beheading, then I’d missed a shit ton since I’d been hunting Acheron in the wilds of Louisiana. I climbed to my feet, turned toward her, and offered my hand.

Emma sighed, sat up, and let me help her up. She smoothed her hands over her hair.

“Emma,” I pressed.

Her shoulders drooped. “Salali.”

I leaned back as the revelation slammed into my stomach. “Salali? The alpha of East Nuttal Delta?” I echoed, incredulous. “She was one of your strongest supporters. What the hell did she do?”

“I caught her listening at the window of the office in the manor. Then, I followed her to the edge of the woods, where she met a raven shifter, gave the bird a report, complained about fawning over the multimorph, and made it clear that she was not on our side. Evie, Ahmie, Reuben, Benjamin, and Levi brought her before the council, and I used the artifact Marcus and I found to link me, Torbin as the delver, and twelve others who were chosen as her jury. The stone amplified everything.”

“So, that’s why the energy I siphoned from you was so strong. That’s why I was able to…” I clamped down on the rest of the sentence. Telling her I’d twisted shifters’ souls into something else, something hateful, wasn’t on the table. Not yet.

“That’s when the surge of primal power nearly electrocuted fourteen of us, yeah.” She sniffed and chewed her bottom lip.

“I’m glad it didn’t,” I muttered. I cleared my throat. “What happened next?”

She took a deep, shuddering breath, her chest expanding with effort. “It was determined by the twelve that Salali had allied herself with Acheron. The alpha was declared a traitor.” She swallowed, her chin quivering, and she shrank with the admission. “The council sent us out of the Gathering Place, deliberated, and sentenced Salali to death.”

“Go on.”

“Her own warriors beheaded her.” She scrubbed a hand over her face, tears already pouring down her cheeks as she rolled away. “I couldn’t do anything to stop it. I’d sworn to let them choose, and I’d promised to uphold and approve whatever the council decided. My hands were tied.”

I gripped her shoulders and turned her to face me. I pressed my palms to her face, brushing away tears with my thumbs, but she wouldn’t meet my gaze. My mate had been baptized by the fire and responsibility of being an alpha.

“You had to watch?” I asked.

“I am the multimorph.” Her voice cracked, but she kept her face pointed down, her eyes on the ground. “For better or worse.” She bit back a gag and yanked her chin out of my grasp. “I allowed it, Logan, so I had to witness it.” A tremble worked through her body.

“Tell me all of it, my love. You’ll feel better after.”

She wrapped her arms around her middle. Horror and sorrow rippled through our bond. “After they’d chopped off her head, it rolled away, Salali’s eyes wide, her hair cut short in places, blood everywhere. I tried not to look and squeezed my eyes shut, but I saw glimpses anyway, and it was like Salali’s soul accused me. It was awful. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that sound,” she whispered.

“Because you are good.” Drawing her into my arms seemed like too little, too late, but it was all I could offer. I pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

She shook her head side to side and tried to pull away from my grasp. “No, no, I’m not. I’m not.”

“You are good,” I repeated. “You are having trouble processing it because you are good.”

She relaxed against me, and she spoke in a numbed, monotone voice. “I should have stopped it, Logan. Instead, I used the incident to fortify my position and warn others that all traitors would be treated the same.”

I squeezed her to me. “You are the multimorph. You are the leader.”

She jerked her head up and jumped out of the bed, her arms waving. Her eyes flashed with a fervor I hadn’t yet seen. “I’m never going to let that happen again, and I have a plan to make sure a beheading isn’t an option.”

I frowned, climbed out of the bed, and crossed my arms. “How do you think you’ll manage that?”

“I’m going to declare an end to packs and clans. We’re all one. By that, I mean we’re going to ignore boundaries and borders. However, you may keep your own alphas. By linking, the council will determine who is and who isn’t a traitor, but I will decide punishment from now on. No warrior will be required to pronounce sentence or enact it on their alpha. I won’t let that happen to any of them anymore.”

“Death is the correct sentence for a traitor.”

Her gaze narrowed, and she jabbed her finger toward me and then herself. “Only if I decide it’s so.”

I didn’t answer.