Chapter 21: The Stone Hall

Ronan's POV

I have stood in front of nineteen Alphas without my heart changing speed.

I stood at the back of the Stonewater Moon Hall at dawn with my hands behind me, and it would not stay still.

The hall was a long timber room with a high roof, and every seat in it was taken.

Three hundred wolves had come in off the south bank in the cold.

The elders sat along the front on a bench, seven old men and women in good wool.

Stonewater's beta stood in front of them with his hat in his hands.

Torin sat alone at the far end of the hall, on the floor against the wall.

Nobody had spoken to him since he came in.

Wynne stood in the middle of the room with her son in a sling against her chest.

She had refused the dais.

She had refused the Luna's chair, an ugly carved thing on the platform, which still held the cushion Odette had embroidered.

She wore the green wool gown, high at the throat, and her braid hung over one shoulder.

I had told her I would stay at the back, and I had meant it.

I had not understood what it would cost.

"I was Luna here for three years," she said.

Her voice was not loud, but the room leaned toward it.

"I walked into this hall on my wedding night and I thought I'd come home. I never once sat in that chair without being told I was lucky to have it."

A murmur ran along the benches.

One of the elders, a thin old woman with a hooked nose, rose to her feet.

"Luna, this is not the place..."

"I'm not your Luna."

The old woman sat down so fast her bench creaked.

"I'm not here to take anything. I'm here because half of you asked me to come, and the other half are wondering why."

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