Wrong Girl, Right Alpha novel · Chapter 37 of 48

Chapter 37: Silver Caps

The rider reached the pack hall before the crowd had finished leaving it.

He was a young Blackwater wolf with a green band on his sleeve.

He walked in through the open doors holding a strip of white cloth.

Under the old law, a rider who carried white could speak once and be sent home.

Nobody stopped him.

"Boyd Satterfield, Alpha of Blackwater, accepts the Luna in the ring," he said, to me.

"The Hunt Moon, at the ford, at moonrise."

Ronan stood a step behind my shoulder.

He had put his shirt back on, and he hadn't said another word to me since that one low "No".

"The Alpha fights by Blackwater custom," the rider went on.

"Iron caps on the teeth. It's the challenger's right, and it's written."

A murmur ran through the hall.

"Silver," the old widow said, loudly, from the front.

"Iron, ma'am."

"I know what it is, boy."

He swallowed.

"He also tells you that Blackwater has buried forty wolves from a sickness that came down the river.

He says it's in the water, and the ford is where it comes in."

"That's a lie," I said.

"I only carry it, Luna."

"Then carry this back. Our water is clean. I'll be at the ford at moonrise."

My voice didn't shake, and I was proud of that.

The rider bowed to me, lower than he had bowed to Ronan, and left.

Ronan took my elbow.

"Home," he said. "Now."

He didn't speak again until our bedroom door was shut and the latch had dropped.

Then he turned around, and his eyes were amber.

"You said yes," he said. "In front of every wolf in the valley. You didn't look at me first."

"You said no. Under your breath, so nobody would hear it."

"Because he'll have silver in his teeth, Nora.

One bite and you carry what I carry, and the burn on top of it."

"I'll carry the burn anyway. That's the cure."

"Then I give you to it twice!"

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