Chapter 24: Alpha

A week later the great hall was full again, and this time nobody was kneeling.

I stood at the foot of the dais in my mother's old green dress, which Hester had let out in the shoulders.

Garrick's carved chair was gone.

Two warriors had carried it out to the yard that morning, and a boy had chopped it up for kindling.

In its place stood a plain kitchen bench with a wolf's head cut into the back, and Everett's ring sat on my thumb.

Melody was on her knees at the far wall, scrubbing the flagstones with a brush.

She had been at it since dawn.

One of the cooks had left a cup of water by her elbow, and she had not been told to.

"Alpha," Hester said from my left. "The pack waits."

I climbed the three steps and sat.

Two hundred wolves lowered their eyes at once.

I had expected it to feel like power, and it felt like a door opening.

"Rise," I said, and they did.

"I'm eighteen years old," I told them. "I was raised in a kitchen, and I'll run this pack from one."

A laugh ran around the hall, low and warm.

"Nobody kneels to this seat. If you owe me something, bring it standing up. If I am wrong, you will tell me so."

"And if you're right?" the bread cook called.

"Then we'll eat well."

The laugh got louder.

Then it stopped, because Cade was walking up the aisle.

He walked slowly, with one hand held against his side, and he had no band on his wrist.

He wore a plain jacket and no badge.

He came to the foot of the dais and went down on one knee, very carefully, and the hall went silent.

"Alpha," he said.

"Cade."

"By the old law, I'm your sworn wolf, and I can't take any seat without your leave. I'm not asking for a seat."

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