Wrong Girl, Right Alpha novel · Chapter 17 of 48

Chapter 17: The Challenge

At sundown, the whole pack stood in the hall, and I walked in on Ronan's arm with the old gold ring on my hand.

Celia was waiting on the dais with her clipboard against her chest.

She saw me, and her face did not change at all.

It was almost impressive.

"My son has come to claim what is his by right," she told the pack. "Dane."

Dane stepped forward from her shoulder.

His hands were shaking, but he walked past his mother and past the chair and stopped on the floor of the hall in front of Ronan.

"No," he said.

Celia's smile stayed where it was.

"Dane."

"I'm not challenging him."

He turned to face the pack, and his voice went up.

"Look at the boys from the south dormitory. Look in their boots."

The dozen young wolves along the back wall went stiff.

Tilly walked down the side aisle, grinning, bent, and pulled a blade from the nearest boy's boot before the boy could stop her.

It flashed silver in the lamps.

"Silver," she said loudly. "And he's got a second one in the other boot."

Nobody breathed.

Celia put down her clipboard.

"The Challenge stands," she said, quite calmly. "The old Luna may name a champion when the challenger fails her. By the law, I name my own."

The bearded man from the van walked out of the line of Blackwater wolves.

He had a purple bruise across his cheek where Tilly's basket had caught him.

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