Chapter 12: The Oath

Maud made them sit down for it.

She took the chair nearest the Stone and put Rosalind in the one beside it.

Dorian stood against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.

Pippa sat on a bench by the door, and Perrin sat down next to her and did not look at her once.

"Four hundred years ago there was no Greywater," Maud said. "There was a woman called MacAlpin and eleven families with nowhere to go."

"Granny," Rosalind said gently. "Just say it."

"I'm saying it. She swore the families to her at this Stone."

"To her."

"To her blood. Every wolf who took the oath in this house took it to the MacAlpin line. Not to a man. Not to an Alpha. To the Luna."

Dorian's lips parted. "That's not how the pack works."

"It's how the pack works on the day you say it does," Maud said.

"She married a Hartwell, because a pack needs a wolf who can fight. She lent him the oath for his lifetime."

She pointed at the Stone. "Each Luna after her did the same. Every Alpha you've ever known held this pack because his wife allowed it."

"Allowed it."

"Your mother never told you because your father's mother never told her."

She snorted. "The Hartwells wanted it forgotten. They've been forgetting it for four hundred years."

Nobody spoke.

Outside the window, wolves were still kneeling in the snow.

"What does the number seven mean?" Rosalind said.

Maud turned to her.

"A Luna can refuse a parting," she said. "She can refuse it six times."

She held up her hand. "Each time she refuses, the oath goes back into the husband's hands and holds him."

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