ould remember, and at noon it was half full of people who had nowhere better to be. I took the table by the

a gray scarf wound twice around her neck, and the crescent pendant lying just under the

alone,"

e or bring my Beta. I do

ould di

own. "How do y

rs reading every file she can get her hands on." She wrapped both hands around her teacup and

ld. I pushed it aside.

n the Council was looking for someone to blame for a forged registration. The doctor was a human, a coroner with a gambling problem, and

to me, if you had told me what you we

u put your hand on my chest and you told me to leave. The next morning I woke up with a bond mark that would not stop bleeding and three of your wolves at my door aski

f had gone very still inside me,

ut the Sever

ncordat, the Council can petition to have the bond nullified, and a licensed physician performs the Severance. It takes about four hours. They put a chemical

of the

as one of the ones who came back. Partly. It is not a clean thing, Elias. Th

st with a pram and a bag of groceries, and the whole ordinary wor

asked. "Who sits

they refuse, the Council can rule that the bond is a danger and order the Severance anyway." She looked at me. "Your name came up in one of those hearings. Two ye

oice,"

hat the re

had tilted and my wolf had started howling at nothing. I remembered her face, white in the doorway, and my own voice saying words

choose it

t still.

t know what happened that nig

g moved behind her eyes that she put away quickl

enient. It is w

ess who saw you that night and thought you were yourself. I have been chasing this for four years and I have heard a hund

of bitter beer and a mark th

man was the third t

and next to each name a date and a small symbol like a pair of crossed pins. "Hartmann is the third. The first two died in their flats and the Bureau called them suicide

id you g

work, Elias. Fourteen people. Two clerks, a coroner, a night guard at the Council archive, and nine Omegas who have survived what

"Why come to me? You have spent four years avoiding me. Wh

e out again and turned it over, and on the back, in the same neat clerk's hand, was a

tatus: severed. Pr

three weeks

king tea, and I am not doing it for free." She stood and pulled on her coat. "I need a detective who can walk into the registration office with a Bureau badge and come out with

r before I got my

ith her hand

about that night. All of it. No

hen come to the Bureau at four," she said, "and bring your badge. Rolf has already called me in for questioning. He thinks