Chapter 5: Claimant

I carried my duffel bag into the lodge at noon and set it on the guest bed.

I had owned that bag for five years, and it held everything I had, which was two pairs of jeans and my mother's reading glasses.

The quilt was still folded at the foot.

I did not touch it yet.

Downstairs, Nolan stood in the hall with a pen and a paper that had been old when my grandmother was a girl.

"Claimant's register," he said.

"Your name, and the cottage you claim.

"I read it out loud at the midday meal, so the pack hears it."

"In front of everyone."

"That's the law."

"Will there be questions from the floor?" I asked.

"I'm reading it," he said.

"I'll leave the commentary to the audience."

The midday meal was in the long hall behind the kitchen, and by the time we walked in, it was full.

Two hundred wolves sat at benches, and the sound dropped.

Jarek's friends held the table by the window.

Brida sat in the middle in white, with her feet up on a bench.

Mavis sat by the stove with a ladle, and she gave me a small nod.

Nolan read the register in his steady voice.

"Daisy Pennick claims the cottage at the end of the east lane, in the name of her mother, Sybil.

"She will live under this roof until the Cold Moon.

"The pack may challenge."

The silence went on a beat too long.

"I challenge," said a voice from the window table, and then another voice said, "Wait for the moon, you idiot."

Keep reading free with an account. Start Claimed by the Alpha I Hate from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.