Chapter 23: Silver Creek

The next morning, the whole of Silver Creek stood in its own square, and they wanted me.

The elders had brought them to Rooke Hall's gate the night before to ask a question.

I had said I'd answer it where the question belonged.

Alaric stood at my shoulder with the crown on his head and my mark healing on my skin.

"Silver Creek has no Alpha," the eldest said from the steps.

"Edmund is put out. The pack asks the Luna of the King to name who leads it."

"Me?" I said.

"You're Edmund's blood and you stood in the ring. The pack trusts you."

I looked at the faces I had known all my life.

Some of them had watched me walk out into the rain and stayed silent.

Some of them had held the doors for my father's wolves.

I found Agnes in the front row with her cane, and she shook her head very slightly.

Then she tipped her chin toward a thickset man of fifty with grey in his temples.

I understood her.

"I name the Beta's second," I said. "The man who wouldn't lay a hand on a King on his knees."

"He told my father no to his face. He'll tell anyone."

The square stood still. Then the Beta's second took a step forward, and the pack roared his name.

He didn't smile. He bowed his head to me, and I saw his eyes were wet.

"Thank you, Luna," he said. "I'll earn it."

"First order of business, Alpha," I said. "Corbin Tate."

Corbin came forward with his arm in a sling, thin and quiet.

"I drank what I was given and I lay down in your bed," he said to me.

"I rejected you when you'd done nothing. I stood by while they banished you."

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