Chapter 20: The Winter Moon

The Winter Moon rose full and white over the Moon Hall yard.

The whole pack stood in the snow around the ring of stones.

Three hundred wolves in dark coats breathed white clouds into the cold.

Behind them stood the camp.

Hoyt had brought a hundred of his people.

They stood in a silent block along the east wall.

I rolled through the middle of them, and they let me through.

Thane walked at my shoulder.

He did not touch the chair.

Luther waited in the ring in his grey suit, with Lorna beside him in white.

"Alpha," he said. "I see you found a champion. Is she here to fight, or to beg?"

"She's here to answer," Thane said.

He climbed onto the flat stone at the edge of the ring.

His voice shook.

It carried anyway.

"Before the challenge, three things are owed.

"I swore them at the Stone, and I'll pay them here."

He turned to the crowd.

"The notice that struck Freya Dahl from the Stone said she let the rogues through at the ford.

"That is false.

"She carried me out of the water, and I'll stand before any wolf who says otherwise."

A murmur went around the ring.

"Hollow Creek is not an unpacked camp anymore.

"The land it sits on is Redwater land, and I'm signing it to them tonight."

The camp wolves stirred.

Hoyt took off his cap.

"And the third," Thane said, and looked at Lorna.

She lifted her chin.

"I don't know what lies you've been told," she said. "I tended this pack for ten years."

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