Chapter 23: Her Choice

I gave him my answer at the Stone Hall, in front of the pack.

Not because I wanted an audience.

I wanted every wolf who had watched him throw me out to watch him come back in.

At sunrise I rolled up the aisle with Trudy on my left and Hoyt on my right.

Thane waited at the foot of the Stone.

He wore a clean shirt and no coat.

He stood with his hands open at his sides.

The hall was full.

The mothers from the clinic stood along the window wall.

The young hunter who had confessed stood by the door with his cap in his hands.

The seer sat on a bench near the front, with her face turned toward the sound of my wheels.

"You asked to stand at my left hand," I said.

"I did."

"As my second."

"Yes."

"No," I said.

A murmur ran through the hall.

Thane didn't flinch.

He nodded slowly, once.

"I understand."

"You don't," I said. "You'd stand behind me and call it penance.

"I'd watch you do it for forty years, and I'm not building a pack on that."

I rolled forward until the wheels touched his boots.

"Stand beside me. Not behind me, and not in front.

"Beside me, with your name cut next to mine."

His eyes lifted.

"Alpha and Luna," I said. "Both. On the same line of the Stone."

"Freya."

"You'll have to earn it every day. I'll tell you plainly when you don't."

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