Chapter 14: The Challenge

The old Alpha read the challenge law aloud in the pasture at sundown.

The whole pack stood in a ring around the lantern stones to hear it.

"A wolf who calls for an Alpha's seat must first beat the heir who stands guard over it," she said. "Fight to the yield, or to the ground."

"The heir stands," Timothy said at once.

He said it to Leon, not to the council.

Leon stood a little apart from Dinah, in his shirtsleeves, with his hands hanging at his sides.

"You said nothing a minute ago about what I wanted," he said.

"Do you want the seat or not?"

"I want to find out what I am without it." Leon looked at the grass. "I'll stand. It isn't for you."

Dinah made a small sound.

He didn't turn around.

I found Crispin behind the lantern stones, pulling off his coat.

The four cuts on his ribs had scabbed over in two days, which no human would have managed.

I hated that I noticed the line of his back before I noticed the wounds.

"Don't do this," I said. "The stone reads in eight days. We don't need the seat."

"I do."

"Why?"

"Because I won't stand beside you at that reading while he holds it."

"That's pride."

"It's the first pride I've ever had," Crispin said, "so let me have it."

His jaw was set, and the old anger came up under his voice at last.

"Four years that house stood over my mark," he said. "Every wolf in it looked at your shoulder, and not one of you ever looked north."

I stared at him.

"I didn't know there was a north."

"I know you didn't." He pushed his hand through his hair. "That's what I can't put down. None of it's your fault, and I still can't put it down."

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