Chapter 4: Three Ends

The Elder's car had barely cleared the gate when I turned on all three of them.

"I just lied to an old man in front of your father," I said. "Tell me exactly what the cut does."

We were on the back porch. Garrick had gone inside, and Linnea had gone with him.

Torsten stood at the rail with his arms folded.

"A thread is a second heartbeat," he said. "It steadies a wolf."

"The Elder cuts it with a knife and a word at the Moon Stone, in front of everyone."

"And the wolf feels it leave," Beck said.

"And then?"

"Then he goes quiet. After a week or two he goes wild."

His jaw moved.

"A man from the north pack walked into Lake Superior in January," he said. "They found him in March."

Nobody said anything.

Beck had stopped smiling. Stellan looked at the porch boards.

"I'm not getting cut," Beck said at last. "I plan to be fat, married and annoying by forty."

"Beck."

"I'm just saying it for the record."

"Then nobody gets cut," I said.

"The law says..."

"I didn't ask what the law says, Torsten. I asked what it does."

He looked at me for a long moment. Then he nodded once.

"We have four weeks," I said. "I'm staying at least that long. Don't argue with me about it."

None of them did.

That night Beck insisted on a movie.

"Normal," he said. "We're going to do one normal thing before everything goes to hell."

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