“You’re one of the panel judges?” Kat asks, and he nods.
“I am sorry, it is nothing personal, but I will sign,” he tells her, leaning down and signing it. “All these signatures are here of their own free will?” He asks, looking over at the woman. They all nod, but I can feel the tension in the room. He sighs and nods.
“May I stay?” He asks.
“It’s up to them,” Kat states, and the Alpha looks at the women, but his gaze isn’t like the others. He seems willing to leave if they ask.
“Come on, he signed, didn’t he?” Larnie says. They nod, and he follows Larnie to her where she is sitting.
“If I may, Luna Queen?” He asks, and Kat nods.
I tense, wondering what he has to say. “Abigail’s mate, Alpha Clenton is also a panel judge. He is outside. And you need three more,” he says, and everyone turns to face a woman, who clearly doesn’t like being called out in front of everyone.
“This is ridiculous. Seriously, over three signatures?” Terra snaps as she gets up from her seat and stomps toward the door in a blazing fury. She stops at the door and tosses it open. The blonde girl Abigail sighs, her flip-flops clap on the ground as she races over to Terra.
“If you want to come in, then you sign this document and keep your mouths shut!” Terra calls out to the Alphas waiting outside in the sun.
A man walks over to her and stares down at Terra. I watch her fingers twitch, and I see Kat step down off the podium. His aura is annoying as he peers down at Terra, but she doesn’t falter except for the tremble of her fingers that she clenches into fists.
“Mate?” He questions, and I realize that is Terra’s husband. She steps aside.
“You come in, you sign,” she orders him, and he raises an eyebrow.
“Is that so?” He asks her with a smile tugging at his lips, as if he finds her demanding him amusing.
Kat is about to walk over, but Terra holds her hand out for her to stop, and she does.
“You sign, if you come in. And I will go to that stupid couple’s therapy, but only if you sign it and back it in court.”
He scoffs and folds his arms across his chest. “You’re blackmailing me.”
“Take it or leave it,” she says, mimicking her mate as they stare off.
“Fine, but you go to every one of them.” He growls, pointing at her.
She slaps his hand away. “Five of them.”
“Eight, it’s twelve weeks of sessions,” he replies.
“Two,” she snaps, and he growls.
“Fine, five then,” he grumbles, stepping past the threshold but unable to.
“Luna?” He asks Kat.
“You can all come in, but don’t cause issues,” Kat announces. Terra’s mate walks over, signs the petition, and the other Alphas file in. Some head straight to their mates, but we only need two more signatures.
“Please, Abigail,” asks her mate, and he sighs and follows Terra’s mate to the table and signs. Kat’s lips tug up triumphantly, and so do the other women’s.
Mateo heads straight to Kat, kissing her cheek softly. “Thank God, I was sweating my ass off out there,” he says, sitting on the podium’s edge.
However, when Blaire’s husband walks in though, everyone watches him. Blaire drops her gaze as he heads over to see what everyone is signing. A few of the other Alphas also get up to see for themselves after Abigail and Terra’s mate signed the document. I watch as Blaire’s husband looks over at her.
“You signed first?” He asks her, though his voice sounds more shocked than anything else, and I hold my breath.
Blaire surprisingly lifts her head, looking straight ahead. “Correct. That law needs to be changed,” she says, and I look at her mate, who is significantly older than her. He turns back to the document, stares at it, and he grits his teeth when Blaire speaks up.
“Do it for Grace, or would you accept the same fate I was given for her, too?” The man glances over his shoulder at her.
His eyes flicker black and he turns back to it. His shoulders tense before he looks at her. “Grace,” he whispers.
“I was only her age,” Blaire says softly, and he looks back at the document before picking up the pen and signing it. Once he’s done, he walks over to her. He falls in the chair beside Baire, drops his arm across her shoulders and tugs her to him.
He kisses her temple and turns his attention to the front to realize we are all staring. We quickly avert our gazes. Once the last Alpha signs the petition, he hands Kat the paper.
“I believe you just got a date in court,” he says, nodding to her before sitting next to his mate.
Kat walks over a few other laws, which everyone signs off on without questions. And then, finally, we reach the one I have been waiting for the most.
“Now this one is the last one, the blood purity law about the placement of children.” Kat announces.
“Dominic had specifically asked us not to sign off on that when it appeared in court,” one Alpha admits, and the others agree with him.
“Dominic isn’t here,” Kat tells them.
“Fuck it, we have signed everything else,” Alpha Jason says, getting up and taking it from Kat to sign and Larni also gets up to sign it. The others are more hesitant, even as Jason looks around to see if any other Alpha would get up.
“My mate and I are begging you, please sign this. Alpha Dominic took our son because he is not blood and handed him to a man with an extensive criminal record, who is abusive and a drunk. The same man who beat his mother and sister, Jonah’s mother. All because he could, because of this law. He is Six. No child should live in fear,” I tell them.
“We are sorry, but-” Amy stops looking around.
Alpha Dominic clearly has his claws in everyone. I walk over to Kat, shuffling through the paperwork for Clive’s criminal history and his photo that she enlarged to hold it up.
“This man has my Jonah,” I tell them, holding up his smiling mugshot. I hand it to Amy to hold as I get to reading out his criminal report. It takes a good twenty minutes to read out every charge and report before I get to the human court reports. I read everything to them, and then, read out that the law allows it.