Chapter 22: The Chair

Gideon's POV

The scar on my shoulder was still pink on the morning I gave away the pack.

I had slept eight days in a spare room at Bess's.

Every night I lay awake with the thin bond humming, knowing Maeve was asleep across the road.

On the ninth day Toby drove me home.

The yard was full before dawn. Word had gone ahead of us.

I stood on the top step where I had stood for six years.

Toby was on the step below me with his hands behind his back, looking as if he wanted to be anywhere else.

The Moon Elder stood at the foot of the stairs in her grey cloak, with the silver seal in her hand.

I spoke before anyone else could.

"I called you here to say that I've failed this pack in three ways."

The yard went quiet.

"I took a lie on faith for six years because it was easy.

"I let a stranger run my house.

"And I stopped listening to the one person who never asked me for anything."

Nobody moved.

"A leader who does that should not have the chair. I told the Council I'd lay it down. I'm doing it now."

A murmur went through the crowd. A woman said, "No."

An old man in the front row said, "Gideon, we don't want that."

"I know you don't," I said. "That's why it's the right time."

I unclasped the iron torc from my neck.

It was my father's, and his father's before him.

It had left a pale ring on my skin.

I held it out to Toby.

He looked at it. He did not take it.

"Alpha."

"I'm not that anymore. Take it."

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