Chapter 17: Article Nine

Kellan's POV

The elder was right, and I knew it before he finished speaking.

I had read the charter at twelve, because my father made me.

Article nine says a killer's line ends with him, root and branch, and it names the son first.

Brigid had known that article at twenty-one.

She had known it every day for fifteen years, and she had carried it alone.

I stepped off the plinth and walked up to the elder.

The square went quiet around us.

I took the iron cuff from my left arm, the Alpha's cuff, which my father had worn for thirty years.

I held it out.

"You are right about the law," I said. "I won't ask you to bend it for me."

"Kellan," said Brigid, behind me.

I did not turn around.

"The pack will vote tonight in the hall," I said. "Every grown wolf has a hand."

"If the vote is for the charter, I will walk to the creek on my own feet. Nobody will have to drag me."

A hush ran through the crowd, and then a rustle.

"Until then I yield the seat. The old elder with the cane holds it."

The old man looked at me over the cuff, and he took it very slowly.

"You are a fool, boy," he said gruffly.

"I'm Aldric's son," I said. "That's the whole of the charge."

I walked back through the pack and out of the square.

I could feel her behind me through the bond the whole way, furious.

She caught me at the edge of the creek path, out of sight of the cabins.

She hit me in the chest with both fists.

"You stupid man," she said. "You absolute stupid, noble man."

"Brigid..."

"Fifteen years." Her voice cracked. "I gave up fifteen years so that you would not stand on that creek bank."

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