Chapter 16: The Moon Circle

The Moon Circle stands on top of the mesa, a ring of nine red stones older than any pack.

At noon the Hollow Moon hangs in the sky, pale as a coin, and it does not move.

Every Alpha and heir stood inside the ring. The rest of the guests packed the slope below in silence.

I stood beside Cade, in the red sash, with my cuff on and my hands cold.

Bernice was on the slope. I could see her blue cardigan.

Vittorio took the center stone.

"The moon shows what is hidden," he said. "Let it show."

He opened a cream-colored letter.

"Before it does, the circle should know what some of its members are worth."

He read it out in his cold voice: the border, the deed, the price of Lara Whitaker.

I let him finish.

"Alpha Merrick received this six weeks ago," Vittorio said, folding it. "He did not refuse in public."

"He refused in one word," I said, and my voice rang off the stones.

"And he told me about it himself this morning. Is that all you have, sir?"

Someone on the slope laughed.

Vittorio's eyes went flat.

"The moon will say the rest."

The light changed.

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