The Alpha's Birthday Wish Came True No More Noise and No More Daughter novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: The Choice

They came to the Ridge Stone at noon the next day, the Shore and the Ridge together.

Nearly six hundred wolves stood on the hillside in the cold sun, packed shoulder to shoulder, with their breath smoking.

Torin's sisters stood at the front with the children on their hips.

My mother stood beside my grandfather's chair, and my father stood at the very back, alone, with his hat in his hands.

I climbed the grey rock.

My legs shook, so I locked my knees.

"I'm not going to use the Voice," I said.

I did not say it loudly.

I said it.

"I want you to hear that first. Nothing I say today is an order."

"Anyone who wants to walk away when I'm done can walk, and no one will stop you."

Nobody moved.

"The Council gave me a question," I said. "I'm supposed to say whose Alpha I am."

"I've thought about it for two days, and I don't think it's the right question."

"I think the right question is whose home this is."

A murmur went through the hillside.

"The Shore is my pack," I said. "I was born in that hall, and I'm going back to it. My mother and my grandfather are there, and it will be loud, and it will stay loud."

"The Ridge is not my pack. But it is where I learned to laugh."

"It's where I heard my own voice for the first time in ten years."

I looked down at Torin.

He stood at the foot of the Stone with his arms at his sides, and I could hear his heart pounding.

His sister had told him about the law, and I knew he would not say a word unless I did.

"There is an old law," I said, "that lets two packs share one seat."

"Torin, do you know it?"

"I do," he said hoarsely.

"Then I'm asking, in front of everyone. Will you swear to me?"

His face broke open.

"I'll swear to you in any language you like."

"Not to the Voice," I said. "To me."

"To you."

I came down off the Stone and stood in front of him.

"Then I choose you," I said. "Not because I have to pick one and you're what's left."

"I choose you because you got up on a table full of butter to tell three hundred wolves they could be loud."

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