Chapter 20: Fire at the Fence

The north pasture was on fire by the time we reached the porch.

Someone had thrown torches into the dry grass along the whole length of the fence.

The wind was carrying the flames toward the barns.

"Trudy, the children and the hall," Dad shouted. "Everyone who can't fight, into the hall and bar the doors."

"I'm not a child," I said.

"You're sixteen," said Mom, and took my arm, and I pulled free.

Aldric was already at the gate.

He had not drawn a weapon.

His hundred black coats were pouring through the opening he had made in the wire.

For a moment I saw the whole line of them, Ironwood's wolves and the Lycan army, forming up together in the glare.

It was the strangest sight of my life.

On the far side of the fire, shadows ran at us.

There were about forty of them, with scarves over their faces, shifting as they ran.

The scattered rogues who had burned the King's hall had come, and with them thirty of Ironwood's own wolves.

I knew them all.

They were the ones who had voted yes to hand me over.

They had stood with Lester for twenty years, and they followed him now without a question.

"Colcord's wolves," Dad roared, in an Alpha's voice, and every one of them faltered.

"Put down your claws! Whatever he told you, he lied!"

Some of them stopped.

Eight or ten fell back and stood with their heads hanging.

The rest kept coming.

Then the line met the line, and the night turned into noise.

Keep reading free with an account. Start They All Forgot Me, So the Lycan King Marched for Me from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.