Chapter 4: The Coffin Lid

At ten o'clock sharp I was propped up in a hospital bed, watching my own marking ceremony on a phone.

My father sat beside me with his arms crossed.

Our lawyer, a heavy, patient man, stood at the window with a legal pad.

On the screen, the pack hall was full.

Hundreds of wolves in black were whispering.

Nobody had told them it was a joke. They thought their Alpha was dead.

Some of them were crying.

The camera swung to the front door and held there.

"Where's the Luna?" someone whispered. "Why isn't the Luna here?"

I watched the Beta walk to the front of the hall.

He is a broad, tired man who has served three Alphas. He did not look at the coffin once.

He cleared his throat.

"I have a message from the Luna," he said. "The ceremony is cancelled."

A murmur ran down the rows.

"The banquet will go ahead as booked," the Beta went on. "The Alpha is covering the cost."

For a moment nobody understood.

Then the coffin lid lifted.

Kellan sat up in his black suit. A splinter from the lid had torn his cuff.

He looked ridiculous. I would have laughed if I could have breathed enough.

"What do you mean, cancelled?" he said.

A sound went through the hall, half a gasp and half a groan.

Odette ran to him from the front row with her hands over her mouth.

"Kel, you're all right," she said. "Thank God it was only a joke."

"She called it off," Kellan said over Odette's head. "She actually did it."

The front doors banged open.

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