Chapter 5: Seven Nights

Nobody in the square breathed.

A mate claim is old law. Every wolf there knew it and half of them had never seen one made.

Rhys put himself in front of me.

"She doesn't answer you," he said. "Walk out of my gate."

"It isn't yours to answer," Costa said. "The claim goes to her. The elders will tell you the same."

He turned his head toward the old healer, who stood at the front of the ring leaning on her cane.

She gave a short nod.

"It's the law, Rhys," she said. "A claim must be answered by the one claimed, before both packs."

"Then she answers no."

"Let her say it herself."

My brother's back went stiff in front of me.

I stepped around him.

My legs still felt borrowed, and the gauze on my wrists itched.

Four hundred faces were turned my way.

For the first time in my life they were looking at the Alpha's sister.

I looked at Costa.

He stood the way he had in the cellar, with his hands open, and gave me nothing. No smile, no pressure. He just waited.

The mark in my wrist beat against the gauze.

"Last night you said my father's name," I said. "You knew who I was before you touched me."

"Yes."

"My brother won't tell me how."

"I will," Costa said. "Not here. I'll answer anything you ask. In my own hall, at my own table, where nobody's listening."

"Willa," Rhys said, very low. "Don't."

I didn't look at him. I couldn't.

If I looked at him I would stay, and I would spend the rest of my life being told what I didn't need to know.

"I'll come," I said.

A hiss of whispers ran around the square.

"For seven nights," I went on, "and I have terms. Say yes to all of them or I stay here."

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