I Was Never Their First Choice novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Seat

Nobody moved.

My father looked at me over the heads of the pack, and I watched him decide what to do with his face.

He chose contempt.

"A challenge for the seat," he said. "From a girl who has been gone a season."

"From a Sandiford," said the old woman by the wall, loudly. "Same as you."

There was a rustle of laughter that died fast.

The old woman was the pack's oldest living elder, and she had her cane planted in front of her on the boards.

"The law of the seat is plain," she said. "Any wolf of the blood may challenge the Alpha at dawn, in the ring. The Alpha may stand or name a champion. If he names a champion and the champion falls, the seat is empty."

"I know the law," my father said.

"Then name," she said.

He did not look at the dais where the Beta stood.

He looked at me.

"I name my Beta," he said.

The hall let out one long breath.

I had expected it.

It still landed hard.

"He'll stand for you," I said, "but you won't."

"I am fifty-three years old and the Alpha of this pack," my father said. "I do not fight children."

"You sold them," Asta said, beside me.

"Take your sister out of this hall," my father said to my mother, but my mother did not move.

The elder rapped her cane on the floor.

"Dawn," she said. "The yard. Two wolves in the ring, no seconds who are not of the pack's blood."

My eyes went to the back of the hall.

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