Chapter 24: The Alpha Who Knelt

Fenn took the old sign down with his own hands.

He did it on a ladder at the head of the long hall, with half of Ironwood standing underneath to catch him.

GOOD FOOD, STRONGER BLOODLINES.

It came off its hooks with a groan, and he handed it down to Aldous like a trophy.

"Firewood?" Aldous said.

"Firewood," said Fenn. "Start with the S."

A cheer went up from the tables.

The hall was full for the first dinner since the Moot, and the long tables were laid with the good plates.

Every pack in the mountains had sent someone.

Every pack wanted to see the hall where the white wolf had first stood up.

I sat at table one, in the chair at the head.

I had not wanted it.

Aldous had said the table was only wood.

He had said I would sit at it because it was mine.

I wore my own dress, dark green, with sleeves that left the scar on my left arm bare.

At the far end of the hall, Lavinia came through the kitchen door with a tray of soup.

She wore a plain gray apron over a plain gray dress, and her blonde hair was tied back under a cloth.

She had worked there for nine days.

She carried the tray down the length of the hall without a word.

Every head turned to watch her do it, and she kept her chin level.

At table one she set a bowl in front of each guest, and she did not spill a drop.

When she reached me, she stopped.

"Your soup, my lady," she said.

"Thank you, Lavinia."

Her eyes flicked up to mine, and for one second they were just a friend's.

She went back to the kitchen.

I watched her go, and I did not know yet what I would feel in a year, and that was all right.

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