She Stole My Wolf, So I Rejected the Alpha novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: Midwinter Night

The pit behind the hall was ten feet across and lined with black stone.

I had last stood at its edge in another life, with a rope around my wrists.

Tonight the whole pack ringed it in the dark, three hundred wolves holding torches, with their breath rising.

The moon was a thin white coin over the roof.

Merrick walked at my right shoulder. Pippa stayed close on my left, gripping a flashlight.

Nobody stopped us. Nobody spoke.

Torin stood on the far side of the pit with six hunters in a loose line behind him.

He met my eyes, and he gave me one short nod.

Torin had kept his word about the mill.

The bundles stacked at the pit's edge were soaked through, and they gave off only a sullen grey smoke that crawled along the ground.

Garth saw that, too.

He stood at the head of the pit in his good coat, and his jaw was tight.

"Briony Oakes," he said, and the yard hushed. "You came."

"You sent a boy to say I'd better."

"I did." The warm voice slid back onto his face like a mask. "Friends, the Keeper decreed a Cleansing, and tonight is the longest night by the count our grandparents kept. We do this in the old way."

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