Chapter 16: For Good

I walked out to the south road in Rowan's coat with my boots unlaced.

Two hundred Kestrel wolves stood in the snow.

They were Omegas and Betas, old men and teenagers, a line of cooks in aprons.

The gray-haired woman at the front had lost her son on a Kestrel border patrol.

She dropped to her knees in the slush.

"Miss Alder, we heard what the glass showed," she said. "We came to say we didn't know."

"Our Alpha told us he held the border alone."

"My boy died because we believed it. Because the Alpha couldn't hold the line and no one told us why."

Behind her, two hundred wolves went down on one knee.

I did not know what to do with my hands.

"Get up," I said. "Please. Don't kneel to me."

"We will stand at the circle tomorrow," the woman said. "All of us. If you want us to."

"I want you to see it," I said.

That was all I had.

The next evening the stone circle filled before the sun was down.

Three packs stood in rings around it, MacClellan on the south, Kestrel on the north, and a hundred wolves from the Council's own border on the east.

The senior elder stood in the middle with the moon-glass in her hand.

Rowan stood behind my left shoulder with Lark asleep against his chest.

The midwife stood at his side.

Bram came last, between his two Betas, in his shirtsleeves with the left shoulder bare.

He looked at me.

He did not look at the Kestrel pack.

"Morwen Alder," the senior elder said. "You have asked to end the bond. Is it freely asked?"

"It is."

"You understand it cannot be mended."

"Yes."

"Alpha Kestrel, do you consent?"

"No," Bram said.

His voice shook. "I don't consent. She can't just cut me off."