“I’m not entirely sure.” Uncle Rick sighed, and rubbed his forehead, then met my eyes. “Your dad and I tried to get this handled on an individual-Pride basis, so we could each discipline our own. But Malone didn’t go for it. He made a conference call to the rest of the council and got a simple majority vote of six to four.” With that, my uncle sank into the chair his son had just vacated. He looked angry, frustrated, and very, very tired.

I knew just how he felt.

“Vote to do what?” Lucas settled wearily onto the couch cushion on my right, closest to his father.

“To turn jurisdiction over to the Territorial Council.”

“Jurisdiction for what?” I asked, my voice soft with dread.

Uncle Rick met my gaze with eyes the same crystalline blue as my mother’s. “You’re being charged with insubordination.”

Beneath his reddish freckles, Lucas’s face went pale with alarm, but all I could work up was mild irritation.

Insubordination was a relatively minor offense—what amounted to a misdemeanor. Under normal circumstances, a guilty verdict would call for the offending enforcer’s immediate dismissal, but it was hard for me to work up much fear over that, considering I was already suspended. And that I was facing the fucking death penalty.

“Insubordination, huh? Is that it?” I asked, and my uncle nodded. “Okaaay, but doesn’t that seem kind of pointless, in view of the other charges against me?”

He nodded again. “I don’t understand what they’re going for. Why bother to slap your wrist when they’re planning to break your neck with the next blow?”

My heart dropped into my stomach. I knew what the death penalty meant, of course, but hearing it stated so bluntly wasn’t exactly pleasant. I liked my neck intact.

Lucas took my hand in his, and I looked up to find everyone watching me.

“Wait.” A brief wave of calm flowed over me as a nugget of werecat political trivia clicked into place in my head. “There aren’t enough of you here for that. Three Alphas are enough for a tribunal, but you need at least four to officially convene the council.” Ha! Take that, Malone!

But Uncle Rick didn’t look anywhere near as pleased as he should have been by my near-perfect recall of Territorial Council policy. Though Marc looked pretty damn impressed.

“The council ruled that your insubordination—”

“Alleged insubordination,” I insisted, though I knew damn well I was guilty.

“Wrong.” Lucas forced a smile. “Michael says that here, you’re guilty until proven innocent.”

“Whatever.” I ignored him, exercising my right to scowl in protest.

“Anyway,” Uncle Rick continued as all eyes refocused on him. “During the conference call, the council ruled that this is a separate issue from the hearing already in progress. They agreed that your father can avoid bias on such a minor indiscretion.”