Chapter 17: I Choose Him

Linnea's POV

Soren's chest was hard and hot under my palms, and his heart was going hard.

I could feel the fear in him.

It was the same one I'd felt in the hall last night, and it was not about Dane.

"Stay there," I said, low.

"Linnea."

"You'll get your turn to talk." I turned around.

Dane stood in the yard in his undershirt, very thin, with the whole pack looking at him.

"I'm the one you claimed," I said, loud enough for the back rows. "I'm the prize in this, aren't I?"

"You're my mate," Dane said.

"Then it's my fight. Stonebrook law lets the claimed pick her champion, and I pick myself."

The yard went loud.

"She hasn't shifted in years," somebody said. "She was in France."

It was true. Maple had gone quiet the night I walked out of the hall. In Lyon she answered me only in dreams.

I had never run with her in front of anyone.

"Is that the law?" Dane said, to the old woman at the gate. "The girl fights for herself?"

"It is," said the old woman with the black cane. "An Alpha's daughter may stand for her own claim. I have seen it done."

"She's no Alpha's daughter. She walked out."

"I'm her father."

Anders stood at the top of the packhouse steps.

He had come down in his robe and slippers, with a healer on each arm.

His face was grey, but his voice carried.

"Anders Lindstrom, Alpha of this land for thirty years," he said. "She is my daughter, and the law is as she says."

He looked at me, and his mouth shook.

"I should have said it the first time," he said. "I'll say it every day now. She stands."

I couldn't speak for a second.