Chapter 10: The Moon Gathering

Rowena's POV

The Moon Gathering was held on the bare shoulder of the hill above my father's hall.

Three hundred wolves stood in a ring around a fire, with their coats open and their breath showing.

The moon was coming up behind the far ridge.

The steward stood on the flat stone at the head of the ring with his arms folded.

Torin and the Healer waited at the edge of the crowd, outside the ring, where guests were allowed.

I walked in alone, and the old secretary called my name.

"Rowena Morland, daughter of the late Alpha, stands to show her wolf to the pack of Northcrest."

"Let it be seen."

For a moment nothing happened.

Nobody coughed.

I thought about the silverroot, which was almost out of my blood.

I thought about Torin's hand between my shoulders on the worst night.

I thought about what the steward had smiled at.

Then I thought about my son, and I stopped thinking and let go.

The change came hard.

My spine bent and my hands dropped into the grass, and the pain went through me and out.

It lasted a few breaths.

When it was over, I was standing on four feet in the firelight, tall and grey with a red-brown saddle.

I could smell three hundred people and the smoke and the cold coming off the ridge.

I lifted my head and howled.

It was a ragged, broken sound at first.

Then someone in the ring answered it, and then someone else.

Then all three hundred of them were howling with me, and the whole hill shook with it.

I stood in the middle of it, shaking in every muscle.

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