Chapter 21: The Claim

By noon on Sunday the courtyard at Highcrest held more wolves than I had ever seen in one place.

Every Alpha in Colorado stood in a half circle on the gravel.

The Silver Creek pack had come up the switchback in two buses.

Winnie stood in the front row in her yellow raincoat, because she refused to wear anything else.

Her mother stood beside her with a handbag.

The envoy stood on the porch steps with his leather case.

The Alpha from the next valley stood in his sheepskin coat, looking pleased with himself.

At the back, between two guards and well away from the pack, stood Dane.

He had no jacket and no ring.

He looked at me once, and I looked back until he looked away.

I wore the green dress.

I walked out alone onto the gravel, and I stopped in the middle of the half circle.

"I'm Marlo Haskett," I said. "I'm a healer of Silver Creek, and I came here a stake on a poker table."

Nobody coughed.

"I was passed around for three years by people who said they loved me," I said.

"So I'll say this once, in front of everyone, and I'll say it first."

I turned to Caius.

He stood at the edge of the circle in his black suit with his hands open at his sides.

"Come here," I said.

He crossed the gravel and stopped in front of me.

I put my hand flat on his chest, over the heart, where every wolf in Colorado could see it.

I felt him breathe in.

"Third term," I said, clearly. "No hand on me where anyone can see."

"I remember," Caius said.

"I'm waiving it. For good."

I heard Winnie sob once, loudly, and her mother tell her to hush.

"I choose you," I said. "I wasn't chosen for you or handed to you. I came back up that road at midnight because I wanted to."

"Marlo," he said, very low.

"Say yours."

"I'm yours," Caius said. "On any terms you write, and on none."

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