Chapter 16: The Address, Again

The great hall held more wolves than it had ever held.

They stood on the benches and along the walls, and they packed the gallery above until the rail creaked.

Cavan walked in at noon with Fenny at his side.

Nobody had told them to walk together.

The old councillor took the dais first.

"The Prime will answer a charge," he said. "Then the pack will say what it thinks."

Roddy stood in the front rank in his good coat, with the maid at his shoulder and the leather satchel under his arm.

He bowed his head to Cavan, sorrowful and fond.

Cavan climbed the dais and faced the hall.

It was the same spot where his voice had cracked at Midsummer.

He felt his palms go damp, and he did not hide them.

"I am Cavan Felix," he said. "I am your Prime."

His voice carried to the back wall, steady and low.

"I will say the thing everyone has whispered about me for half a year, so nobody has to whisper it again."

The hall went still.

"Sometimes I am an omega."

A sound ran through the benches, a hiss of breath, and a single sharp word from the gallery.

Cavan did not stop.

"It began when I was twenty. It comes when I am afraid, or angry, or wanting something."

He paused.

"It goes when I calm. For six years my parents kept it quiet, and I let them, because I was ashamed."

He looked at the faces below him, one after another.

"I am not ashamed today."

"Liar!" someone shouted. "He's not fit!"

"Let him finish," the old councillor said sharply.

Cavan took one slow breath.

"I have led you through two winters and a flood. I have never failed a patrol or a harvest or a grievance."

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