Chapter 17: The Price

Darek had the radio in his hand before the sentry finished speaking.

"Say it again," he said.

"Eight wolves, Alpha. No pack scent. They came over Stillwater's north line twenty minutes after Redfern left it."

"Somebody was watching and waiting," Darek said.

Jarrett pushed himself off the truck.

He swayed, and Muriel caught his arm.

"Stillwater's northern ranches," he said. "The Hendry place and the two behind it. Families, kids, no wall."

"You have patrols," Darek said.

"Twelve wolves. Redfern's eighty were the line."

He took out his phone with a hand that would not close properly.

He called his beta, and I heard the voice come back thin and fast across the speaker.

Two Stillwater wolves down at the Hendry gate.

A barn burning.

The rogues were not running.

Jarrett's face did not change, but the phone shook.

"I'm coming," he said.

"With what?" Darek said. "You can't shift."

"I have hands."

"You have cracked ribs and one eye."

We went inside the Ironwood hall because it was the nearest roof, and because Muriel would not argue about it on a road.

Bess put a pot of coffee on the table and a basin of water at Jarrett's elbow without being asked.

She did not speak to him.

Jarrett stood at the end of the long table with his hands flat on the wood.

I had only ever heard him ask me, and never in front of a room.

"Darek," he said. "Faye."

I stayed where I was, by the window.

"I need wolves," he said. "I'm asking Ironwood to hold my north line, for the families on that ridge. I'll pay whatever you want."

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