Chapter 21: Take It From Him

Ingrid's POV

The pack filled the doorway behind me, and nobody spoke.

I could hear them breathing.

Some had shifted and some had not.

In the dark behind the veranda a hundred pairs of eyes shone green and gold.

Aldric did not look at them.

He looked at the knife.

"It is a very old law," he said, "that an Elder may take what the pack needs."

"Not from children," said the grey-bearded elder.

His voice shook, and he stood where he was.

"Not by that rite. You know the law, Aldric. We all know it. It was written after the last time."

"The law is mine to keep."

"No longer."

The old man looked at him with a sort of mild interest.

"Who will take it from me, old friend?"

I walked forward.

"Ingrid," Torin said under his breath.

"Stay behind me."

"No."

I stepped over the line of salt, and it hissed under my shoe.

Jonah's eyes met mine, gold and furious, and I knelt and pulled both children against my chest.

Hazel's face was wet.

"Mommy, he said I'd be a good battery."

"I know, baby."

"What's a battery?"

"Something he's never going to touch again," I said.

I stood up with them behind me and faced the man who had fed me soup.

"You took my wolf," I said.

"You stood over me at seven years old and let me think I was empty."

"You were fed and clothed and schooled for nineteen years," Aldric said.

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