Chapter 18: The Chair

Ramsay turned his head very slowly.

"Say that again," he said.

"The man who held the girl was her Alpha," the Chair said.

"He kept the cabin, he signed every log, and he stood at her grave stone and wept."

"You wrote the schedule." Ramsay's voice cracked. "Your pharmacy sent the herb. Your daughter measured every dose."

"My daughter is a loyal woman who did what her Alpha asked."

Ruby lowered her head, and her shoulders began to shake.

I knew that sound.

I had heard that same soft shake in her voice in the cellar, over the clink of a teacup.

"Don't," I said to her. "It's too late for it."

She went still, and her shoulders stopped.

The Chair came down the steps one at a time.

He stopped in front of me, close enough that I could smell the camphor on his coat, and he lowered his voice.

"You are a clever girl, Miss Hoglund," he said. "Cleverer than your grandmother."

"You knew my grandmother."

"Everyone on this mountain knew Ada."

He glanced around.

The Alphas stood far enough back that only wolf ears would catch him, and I saw the gray-braided Alpha tilt her head.

"She was a hard woman with a hard father."

"Why my land?"

"You really don't know."

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