Chapter 40: Haggoz Dilemma

Word had reached Haggoz just as he was leaving a meeting with the king and his council that the prisoner might be ill. It had alarmed him, and he had quickly made an excuse to the king and rushed from the chamber as soon as he could to go check on her.

Love had come late in life to Haggoz, and when it had, it hit him hard. Werewolves matured early and Haggoz had been not quite thirty years old when he first met Keanna. Werewolf males usually were mated and raising children by their early twenties, but the war had been far more important to Haggoz. He was content with casual partners, having no wish to tie himself down and have a nursery full of children like some of the younger officers.

He was from a noble house and had first asked to become a warrior at age twelve, anxious to get away from his mother and her cruelties. He had worked his way up through the ranks, aided by battlefield promotions and a few desperate skirmishes with the Federation forces in which he and his men had ma