Wrong Girl, Right Alpha novel · Chapter 48 of 48

Chapter 48: Right Alpha, Right Luna

The first snow fell on a Sunday, and we set the table for forty.

It ran the length of the pack hall, with the widows' linen on it.

The Blackwater sick sat in the best chairs, wrapped in blankets.

Ronan sat at the head, and I sat at his right.

Hazel stood on my knee in a knitted cap with a bear's ears, gripping the table edge in both fists.

She had been walking for a week and fell down on principle.

"Dane," Ronan said. "The bird."

Dane stood up at the foot of the table with the knife in his hand.

He had been practicing on a goose for three Sundays, and the first two had been a disaster.

He cut the third one into thin, even slices, with his tongue between his teeth.

A hush fell while he did it.

"Well?" he said, holding up a slice.

"Perfect," said the old widow, with her mouth full.

The whole table cheered, and Dane went red to the ears.

The Blackwater girl sat beside the beta.

Her gray veins had faded to a faint blue, and she had a little color in her face.

The old healer sat beside her and said nothing, and ate three helpings.

At the far corner sat Vanessa in a plain blue dress, with her hands healed and her hair cut short.

I had told her on Thursday that there was a chair.

She had asked whose.

I had said, "Yours. Don't make a speech."

She hadn't, and she had passed the potatoes down the whole table without being asked.

"I've got an announcement," Tilly said, from the middle, and stood on her chair.

The south sentry put his head in his hands.

"I'm marrying this man in the spring, and he doesn't know it yet."

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