Chapter 13: The Presentation

I took Tove's phone out of her hand and read the messages myself.

The Thunder Bay Alpha's son had sent a photo of a hotel bill, paid on a Rask card.

"Does Vidar know?" I said.

"Not yet." Tove chewed her thumbnail. "If I tell him, he drives to Thunder Bay tonight and opens a man up on his own lawn."

"Then I'll tell him."

"Linnea..."

"No more people deciding what he can handle," I said. "Or me."

I went up the last flight and didn't knock on the connecting door.

I knocked on his real one, the one from the hall, so he'd know I meant business.

He listened to the whole thing standing at his window with his arms crossed.

When I finished, the glass in front of him had fogged with his breath.

"I'll forbid it," he said.

"You can't forbid an old law the night before."

"I'm the King. I can forbid the lake."

"And tomorrow every pack on the shore says the King's human hides behind him."

I sat on the arm of his chair.

"I'm not walking in there to be judged, Vidar. I'm walking in there to judge them."

He turned around.

His eyes had a rim of gold.

"If they put you out of the territory..."

"Then I'll have to make it hard for them to raise their hands."

He looked at me for a long time.

"What do you need?" he said.

It was the first time he'd asked me that instead of telling me.

"Your sister," I said. "And for you to keep your teeth in your mouth."

Saturday at moonrise the great hall was full.

The pack lined the walls two deep.

The eleven Alphas sat along the council table, and the seven old wolves had been moved to a bench by the hearth.

I knew some of the Alphas by Tove's whispering.

The Duluth Alpha was a big gray-haired woman in a fleece vest.

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