Chapter 5: The Visitor

On the second morning, a runner came into the pack kitchen with flour on his boots and said the south gate had a visitor.

"Which visitor?" Kari said, with her arms in a mixing bowl.

"Red Creek's Alpha. He's got a branch."

A peace branch meant he had come with no weapons and no right to be refused.

Kari swore and wiped her hands.

I took off my apron.

"You don't have to go out there," she said.

"If he came to look at me, I'd rather he did it while I'm standing up."

We walked out across the gravel together.

Corwin Haskell stood just inside the gate with a pine branch in one hand and two wolves in human skin at his back.

He was wiry and sandy-haired, in a leather jacket, and he smiled when he saw me.

Lucan was already there.

He had come down from the pack house without a coat again, and he stood between Corwin and the path with his feet planted.

"Haskell," he said.

"Ferris." Corwin lifted the branch. "I heard there was a death in your house. I came to pay my respects."

"Nobody died."

"A bond did. That's close enough in my family."

He looked past Lucan's shoulder at me, and his smile got a little wider.

"Miss McCurry, I presume."

"That's right," I said.

"Corwin Haskell. I run Red Creek, over the south ridge. I hear you did something remarkable at your ring."

"I left it."

"That's what I mean."

He took a step toward me.

Lucan moved to block him, and Corwin stopped and tilted his head.

He drew in a long, slow breath through his nose.

His smile went still.

"Well," he said softly. "Isn't that interesting."

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Moon She Waited Under from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.