Chapter 24: Moon Supper

"I knew," my foster mother said into the stone.

She did not lift her head.

"They told me the night we brought you home. I was told never to ask, and I never asked."

"You put my bags on the lawn."

"Yes."

"You watched Camryn film it."

"Yes." Her shoulders shook. "I am so sorry, Seren. I should have fought for you, and I was afraid."

I looked down at her gray head.

I had wanted this moment for two months, and now that it was here, I felt tired.

"I'm not going to say it's all right," I said.

"I know."

"Get up."

She rose slowly.

"You'll serve at the next Moon Supper," I said. "At my table, in front of everyone. You'll carry every plate."

She wiped her face.

"Yes," she said. "Thank you."

I turned away, and Evander's hand found mine.

A month later, the long table in the Alpha's lodge was set for forty.

The old Alpha's chair stood empty at the far end, draped in black.

The Council had given the lodge to nobody, and the pack held its Moon Supper there by treaty.

Tonight, for the first time, the table had a new head.

I sat in it, in a green dress, with a silver half-moon bare on my wrist for anyone to see.

Evander had bought me forty more dresses, as promised.

Evander sat on my right.

The northern lords sat down the left side, and the wolf families sat on the right.

Nobody bared a fang.

The pack elder poured the first cup and lifted it to me.

"To the Mate of the Mourne House," she said, "and to the end of the border sales."

"To the end of them," the whole table said.

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