Chapter 16: The Gate Again

I put Ewan into Sinead's arms without taking my eyes off the gate.

"Inside," I said. "Take Hester. Bar the door."

Sinead went, fast.

Then I took the rifle off the hook by the lodge door, where it had hung all week, and walked to the gate.

Bram was at my left.

Garrick limped up on my right, in his bandaged feet.

"The writ," Bram said.

The enforcer with the paper held it up.

Bram took it through the bars and looked at it for a long moment.

"Moon Court seals are silver," he said. "This one is red wax."

Nobody spoke.

"I have seen the Court's silver seal on my father's land deed," Bram said. "I know what it looks like. This is a candle and a thumb."

The twenty enforcers looked at each other.

"Anyone can melt wax," the Beta said smoothly.

"Anyone can," Garrick said. "Only one man in Ironbark has the pack's wax at his bedside."

He pulled the gate open and stepped through it, alone, onto the Ironbark side of the line.

"Garrick," I said.

"Let me."

He walked up to his own enforcers and stopped in front of the largest one, the man who had laid his rifle down in the snow that afternoon.

"You were at the cabin," Garrick said.

"Yes, Alpha."

"What did you see in there?"

The man's throat moved.

"Rhea MacTavish's son, Alpha. In her arms. Fed."

"And whose son is he?"

"Yours."

"Whose men are you?"

He didn't answer, and he looked at the Beta.

The Beta stepped forward.

"The Alpha is a keeper," he said. "A keeper holds the seat in trust. A keeper who has lost his wits can be set aside by the Beta and the elders."