Chapter 24: Take It From Him

Aldric's smile stayed on his face, and I understood that he meant every word of it.

Nobody in the house spoke.

The grey-bearded elder walked out onto the stone floor and stood over him.

"Aldric Wolcott," he said.

"You bound a child's wolf into another child, and tonight you tried to cut two more out of their bodies."

"In front of this pack and by the oldest law we have, I take your seat on the council."

He did not raise his voice, and every wolf in the yard heard him.

"I take your house, and I take your name among the Elders."

"So it stands," Torin said.

His voice was rough, but he said it as Alpha, and the pack heard it.

The elder bent and picked up the cane.

He broke it across his knee, and the crack went around the stone walls and came back.

The two guards who had taken off their hats came in from the veranda and lifted Aldric by the arms.

He did not fight them.

He hung between them with his silver head up, still smiling.

"The cellar of this house has a room with an iron door," the elder said.

"The council kept it for a day like this one. He will sit in it, and we will guard him ourselves."

"A very comfortable arrangement," Aldric said.

"My son won't live to see sunrise, and you will all have something to do with that."

"The rite," said the healer.

She stood by the wall rubbing her wrists, and her face was grey.

"We have until moonset, Alpha, and it is already pulling at you."

"Then say the words," I said.

"I can say the words."

She was looking at the man between the guards.

"I said them the first time, at his order, with his blood on the stone.

"I need the same blood and I need it tonight."

"He'll give it," the elder said.

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