Chapter 16: Soren's POV: The Challenge

Soren's POV

Dane Callender came down the packhouse steps at dawn on his own two feet.

He had washed and shaved and put on a clean shirt, and he had put his signet ring back on.

It was a good performance, and I had watched enough of them in my father's hall to know the cost.

His hand shook on the rail until he let go of it.

The yard was full. Word had gone through the pack in the night, and nobody had slept.

Linnea stood at my left shoulder in the cold. I could feel her through the mark, tired and braced and furious.

I could also feel the thing she was trying not to feel, which was pity.

"Prince Draycott," Dane said.

He stopped at the foot of the steps and raised his voice for the yard.

"By Stonebrook law, a man who has refused a true mate may claim her before the Moon's witnesses. My claim is first, and older than yours."

"I am calling it."

The old woman with the black cane stood by the gate, and she did not contradict him.

"I challenge you to the Stone," Dane said. "Wolf against wolf, at the Rite. The winner keeps Linnea Lindstrom."

A hiss of whispers went through the yard.

I did not look at Linnea. I looked at him.

He was the same age as I was, within a year, and he looked fifty. His wolf was a dying coal in him, and I could smell it.

He had no hope of winning. He had hope of something else.