Chapter 5: The Vote

At noon the great room was so full that people stood along the walls.

Seven elders sat at the head table with the Law Book open in front of them.

Godfrey sat in the middle of them with his cane across his knees.

I walked in between Hattie and Rhys, and the crowd parted for us without a word.

Cade stood alone at the side of the room, a long way from the Alpha's chair.

He did not look at me.

He looked at the floor, and he held his right wrist in his left hand.

"We are here for a small and sad matter," Godfrey said, kindly.

He waited until the room was quiet.

"A woman has been condemned at the Moon Drop.

"The condemned have no standing in this pack, and neither have their children."

"I was raised," I said.

Every head turned.

"I am not a woman who was condemned and left in the water. I walked out of it."

"Child," Godfrey said gently, "no one doubts your courage."

"Then read the law."

I said it loud enough to carry to the back.

"Read what it says about one the moon gives back."

Godfrey looked down at the page.

He did not move his finger.

The old woman from the middle table, the one who had spoken at dawn, leaned over and tapped the book.

"It says, taken back is cleared," she said. "It says, cleared is as if never condemned."

"It says that," another elder said, uneasily.

"It says nothing at all about a child," Godfrey said.

He still sounded sorrowful.

"And the child is moon-marked, Mother. That is a matter for the whole pack."