Elders' Ultimatum

" Lawrence, step forward," boomed Alpha Clement as I stepped into the near dark council chamber, my heart forging against my caricatures. I could nearly taste the pressure in the banal air heavy with centuries of tradition and frosty judgment.

I dithered at the threshold, surveying the stern faces of the pack elders gathered in a element. Their unblinking eyes, cold, projected me down like prey." I — I am then," I managed, my voice lower than I'd hoped.

Alpha Einstein's ...