Chapter 23: Forty Wolves and One Road

Alpha Whitcombe came back at noon with forty Ironridge wolves behind him.

They stopped at Hollowmere's gate in a line, in grey coats, with their hands loose at their sides.

I was waiting for him on the road with Poppy's hand in mine.

I had not told anyone to come out with me.

Half the pack came anyway.

Corbin walked up beside me in his shirtsleeves. A rope was still looped over one shoulder from the well.

"You shouldn't be at the front," I said.

"I'm not at the front. I'm next to you."

"It's the same thing."

"It's not," he said. "Ask the cook."

Poppy tugged at my sleeve. "Mama. That man smells like a bad dream."

"I know, baby."

"Is he the one who made Miss Sabine sad?"

"He's the one who made lots of people sad."

Whitcombe stepped forward from his line. His face was grey with rage.

"Dr. Roarke. The Gathering entrusted that child to the care of the north."

"It did not," I said.

"The north is me, and I am here to see to her."

"She is five and she is mine. She sleeps in her mother's wing under the Stone's own ruling."

"The Stone's rulings are for packs." He lifted his hand. "Ironridge, bring me the girl."

Not one wolf moved.

He turned his head. "Ironridge."

A wolf at the end of the line took a step forward.

It was Ironridge's beta, in his grey coat, with a small boy riding on his arm.

"Alpha," he said. "I'd like to say something."

"Not now."

"Now." The beta's voice shook, but it carried.

"I was on that hill. I saw what you did with my son."

He turned to face the forty wolves behind him.

"You've all known me twenty years. Tell me which of you didn't know the boy was mine."

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