Chapter 23: Home

We went up the south road that same afternoon, the whole length of it, on foot.

I carried Lyra in a sling against my chest.

Kellan walked on my left, with his hand on my back, and Hester walked on my right and talked.

"I'm saying it's a marvelous entrance," she said. "Dead woman returns from the grave, alive, with a baby and a better-looking husband."

"He's not my husband."

"He's your something."

"Mate," said Kellan.

"Fine, your mate. It's still a marvelous entrance."

Behind us came both packs, strung out along the road, two hundred feet of boots and muddy skirts.

At the cairn by the creek, where the road bends, I stopped.

The stones were still there.

Someone had stacked them higher, neat, and cleared the brush around them.

Dried flowers lay along the top, a hundred little brown bundles.

A flat slate had been propped against the biggest rock, and a name was cut into it.

ELORA TOLBERT, OUR LUNA.

My throat closed.

"They did this?" I said.

"They did it the week after," said the young Alpha, who had caught up with us. "The whole pack. We didn't know."

Hester made a small noise.

I put my hand on the slate, and it was cold and rough under my palm.

"I'm going to need someone to take this down," I said.

"Luna, we'll..."

"Not today," I said. "Leave it. Let it stay until I'm done being dead."

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Alpha Who Let His Luna Die from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.