Chapter 16: The Ring

Jasper's POV

I walked into the ring before anybody told me to.

The circle was knee-high stones, laid by the founders at the center of the meadow, and nobody had fought in it for thirty years.

Moonrise came up orange over the eastern ridge.

Three hundred wolves stood in a wide, silent ring around it.

I did not look for Autumn yet.

I could feel exactly where she was, a steady warmth at my left shoulder, and I knew if I turned I would lose my focus.

"Champion for the holder of the heir's name," said the Keeper. "Step forward and state your cause."

"Jasper Radcliffe." I took my coat off and dropped it on the grass. "I stand for her, and she did not ask me to."

A low sound went through the crowd.

My father's second stepped over the stones.

The Beta was fifty-three, broad through the shoulders, with a flat patient face and hands that had broken a lot of men's noses.

He had taught me to fight when I was ten.

"Boy," he said quietly. "Don't make me do this."

"Then don't."

He shook his head slightly, and shifted.

It took him a breath.

His shoulders rolled up thick and gray, and his jaw lengthened, and a growl rose out of his chest.

I let the wolf up to my shoulders and no further.

My wolf was awake, and he was not silent anymore.