Chapter 11: What Hester Did

I put two fingers in my mouth and whistled once, short and hard.

The Beta stepped out of the dark between the headstones, with two enforcers behind him.

He wore a long grey coat, and he carried no lantern.

He didn't look at me.

He looked at the open grave, and the small bundle in my arms, and he sighed.

"Digging up the dead on Ironbark ground," he said. "I wondered how far you'd go."

"Not far enough," I said.

"Hester, step away from her."

Hester didn't move.

"You know the penalty for a healer who breaks her oath," the Beta said, gently. "You know what I told you about the little girl."

Hester's whole body shook.

Then something large cleared the graveyard fence in one bound, and landed in the snow between the Beta and me.

A dark brown wolf, with his hackles up and his teeth bared.

The two enforcers stepped back.

Bram shifted without a sound and stood up in the starlight, naked and furious and very calm.

"Beta," he said.

"Alpha Donohue. You're on Ironbark land without leave."

"I am."

"That's an act of war."

"Then call the Moon Court," Bram said. "And explain to them why the grave of the Alpha's son has a stranger's hair tied around its wrist."

The Beta's face didn't change.

But I saw his eyes go to the little band, and then to me, and I saw a man doing arithmetic he hadn't expected to need.

"You're mistaken," he said.

"I'm not," I said. "I braided his cord myself. This isn't it."

"A bereaved woman will see what she wants."

"Then you won't mind if the whole pack comes to look."

He said nothing.

"Hester," Bram said, without turning. "The little girl. Your granddaughter."

Hester's head jerked up.

"Sinead went to your cottage an hour ago, while Rhea was crossing the ice. She has the child. She's at my fire right now, eating pancakes."