Chapter 17: The Stone

Corbin did not move.

He looked at my face, then at my stomach, then at my face again.

"Nine weeks," he said.

"Nine weeks and two days."

His lips moved, and for a moment no sound came.

"You told me you wouldn't ask me for anything," I said.

"I'm asking. Once." His voice broke on it. "Don't take my child where I can't see it."

"You put me second a dozen times, Corbin. I'm not handing you the one thing I'll put first."

He went down on his knees on the stone.

He did it slowly, with the cast held against his chest, and the few wolves left in the hall looked away.

"I'll step down tonight," he said. "I'll sign the north timber over to Black Pine. Tell me what to do."

"Nothing. There's one thing left that's mine to do."

The Redwood healer was winding the end of Ewan's bandage, and his hands stopped.

"Luna," he said carefully. "You mean the bond."

"Tiffany said to cut it and see what I am when he's gone." I turned to him. "Can I?"

"A Luna can lay it down at a territory stone, in daylight, with one witness from each pack."

"It runs from you to him, so it only needs your voice. It won't touch the pup. That one is bound by blood."

"Then I'll do it in the morning."

Ewan was looking at me, and his face did not move.

"I'll stand witness," he said quietly. "If you want me."

"Behind me," I said. "Where I can feel you."

The fog was thick on Miller Road at dawn, and the marker stood in it, a chest-high granite stone with a notch worn smooth on top.

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