Chapter 21: Nine Names

Torben's POV

He came up the hill at four in the afternoon, on his knees, and I did not help him.

My whole pack stood along the path.

A hundred and fifty wolves, in coats and work boots, with their hands at their sides.

Nobody spoke.

The keeper had sent two wolves from the river pack to walk behind him.

They stopped at the foot of the slope and let him climb alone.

Margo had stayed below at the Stone.

She had told me quietly that Verity's charter would be put to the pack in the morning.

She would not be hurried over it.

"You go up there," she had said. "This is yours."

I had kissed her once in front of both packs, and I had not been sorry.

The shelf was gray under a low sky.

My beta stood at the edge of the stones with her braid over her shoulder.

Heath had worn through both knees of his good trousers by the last stretch.

His palms were scraped raw from the gravel.

He had been an Alpha for six years, and I watched him crawl the last ten feet as an ordinary man.

He stopped at the ring.

I stood on the far side with my hands in my coat.

I had thought about this for three years.

I had thought about hitting him.

I had thought about shifting and doing what my wolf had asked of me every night since the snow.

My wolf did not ask me now.

It lay quiet in my chest and watched.

"Say them," I said.

Heath lifted his head.

"I don't know them."

"I know."

I said the first name.

He said it after me, cracked and low.

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