Chapter 11: The Ring

Wynne's POV

"I accept," Ronan said.

He said it so quietly that I almost missed it.

Then I saw nineteen Alphas hear it and sit up straight.

I stepped forward before I had decided to.

"Ronan."

"It's done, Wynne."

"It's my child they're fighting over."

"It's custom," he said, and for one second his voice gentled. "Stay by Edda."

I stayed, because I could see his face and he was not afraid.

He was only very still.

The ring stood in the middle of the courtyard, a wide circle of black stones set into the frozen ground.

Two hundred wolves crowded the walls around it.

The Alphas took the front benches in a long row.

Odette stood at the edge of the stones with her hands pressed against her chest.

Torin walked into the circle alone.

He stripped off his coat and shirt and handed them to his beta without a word.

By custom the challenger shifted first.

I watched him roll his shoulders and set his feet.

He closed his eyes.

I had watched him do it a hundred times, on a hundred nights.

He would drop his head, and there would be a sound.

A great tawny wolf would stand where the man had been.

Its rumbling bark would make the whole pack go still.

I waited for it.

Nothing happened.

Torin's shoulders bunched.

The veins stood out in his neck.

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