Chapter 18: Not Without Her Yes

Dane's POV

"No," I said.

Her hand stayed on my face. The moon was in her eyes, and she did not look surprised.

"You didn't even think about it."

"I've thought about nothing else for a month."

She waited.

She was good at waiting for me to say the true thing.

"Article nine says a bite taken without the guardian's word is void," I said. "You know that part."

"Ernest said it in front of everyone."

"He didn't say the rest. A void bite strikes the ward from the pack roll."

Her hand dropped.

"Not me," I said. "Not my seat. You."

"The Council would put you out of Cold Ridge as a wolf with no pack."

"A lone she-wolf doesn't last a winter. Ernest would see to it."

"You looked that up."

"Carrie looked it up. I read it four times."

"So you'll just wait."

"Until dawn on Midwinter, when you turn twenty-five. Seven weeks. Then you speak your own word and nobody can touch it."

"And Ernest's challenge?"

"Comes at moonrise on the eve. Hours before that dawn."

She stared at me.

"So for those hours you're an Alpha with no mate in law," she said slowly. "And he walks in and calls it."

"Yes."

"And you'll fight him, with me standing at the edge of the ring."

"Yes."

"That's your whole plan."

"It's the only one that doesn't cost you a vote."

"It's my vote to lose, Dane."

"I took one choice from you already," I said. "I signed it away in a stack of papers. I won't take this one with my teeth."

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