Chapter 14: The Scent Witness

"No," I said.

Alpha Whitcombe's smile held. "You haven't heard the full offer."

"I heard the part where you want to put your teeth in my shoulder."

A wolf somewhere in the crowd made a sound that was almost a laugh.

"Luna," Whitcombe said patiently, "you are an omega who learned tonight what she is."

"You don't know how to use it. I do."

"Then tell the pack how," I said.

His eyes narrowed.

"The seat is in my keeping, and the Stone is under my hand."

"Put your palm beside mine and tell two hundred wolves what Ironridge wants with Hollowmere."

"I want what is best for it."

"Then it will be an easy sentence."

He did not move.

The Stone-keeper's stick tapped once in the silence.

"The Stone takes what is true and leaves what is not, Alpha Whitcombe. You have heard me say so twice tonight."

Whitcombe looked at the slab. He did not look at his daughter.

"I decline," he said. "An omega's whim is not a court."

"Then let me save you the trouble," a man said from the dark.

Heads turned toward the tree line.

Boots crunched on the frozen grass, and thirty wolves in blue Blackwater coats came over the ridge in a quiet line.

Desmond Kerr walked at the front with his hands in his pockets and his sandy hair full of wind.

"Evening, Luna," he said. "Forgive the entrance. I've been standing in those trees since sundown."

"Why?" I said.

"I wanted to watch you refuse him to his face." His crooked smile came and went.

"Also, I've had a bad five years, and I'd like to see one man fall down."

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