“What my father did was repugnant,” Declan said flatly. “It goes against every instinct a wolf alpha should have.”

Woodbridge sniffed, his eyes growing colder. I sent a thought of caution through our binding. I completely agreed with Declan, but we didn’t want to piss off the Tribunal, either.

Woodbridge leaned forward. “You were the oldest boy. I remember now. The rumors—were they true?”

Declan eased back in his chair, throwing one arm over the back of mine, all indifference, but I could feel how tense the muscles in his leg were. I didn’t even remember putting my hand there. I lifted my hand only to have Declan push it back onto his thigh with his fingers. I almost took it back off, because it was high up on his thigh, but if it had bothered him, he would have moved it. Certainly didn’t bother me. Declan was a stressed shifter and if he needed touch, I would gladly give it to him.

“You’d have to be more specific,” Declan said dryly. “There were a lot of rumors.”

“About the witch,” Woodbridge pressed. “The experiments.”

“Animal mage, specifically,” Declan corrected.

“The reports said she bound you,” Prisha said, her eyes shining with sympathy.

Declan turned his attention to her. “My stepmom was an animal mage and my father’s second mate.”

“He had more than one mate?” The question slipped out without thinking. Well, everyone was already staring at me. Might as well keep going. “On Mated by Fate, they always make a big deal over the mating for life thing werewolves did.”

Declan gave me a sad smile. “Technically, he mated for life. My dad was a widower when he bonded with Eva.”

“Getting back on topic,” Woodbridge said, giving me the stink-eye. “Ms. Bhatt asked if Eva bound you.”

“When we were unruly, she took steps.” He shrugged, trying to be nonchalant, but I could feel all the turmoil roiling inside him. “My sister and I were often unruly. My other two siblings weren’t shifters, so she couldn’t bind them.”

“She kept you in your animal form for a year.” I don’t think Prisha even meant to say it. The words just fell out and then she looked shocked at her own admission.

Declan’s voice was carefully even. “Three months was the longest.”

Three months was an eternity to be kept in his other form. And as a child? I shuddered.

Woodbridge leaned further over the table now. “How old were you?”

“Seven,” Declan said. “When it started.”

While shifters needed time in their animal form, too much time wasn’t good. Long bouts as a child were dangerous. They could forget they were human and not come back. Until the trials, I’d never even heard of a forced change, let alone on a child for that long.

I’d heard other things, too. Campbell had been arranging marriages. Which shifter packs didn’t do. Ever. He’d had absolute control over his people’s lives.

Woodbridge looked like he had more questions, but Patrice spoke up. “Mr. Mackenzie, in light of all of this, of what you’ve already been through, why would you ask the council to leave you bound to another animal mage? To compound a traumatic event in your childhood—an illegal one at that. Your stepmother is still in prison for what she did to you and the other shifters.”