Sold to the Wolf Chief for a Debt, but His Wolf Knelt First novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: Beltane
On the night of Beltane the beeches round the Clava cairns were in new leaf.
The ring was lit with fires instead of torches.
Three hundred wolves stood among the old stones in their good coats.
The sixty-one stood with them inside the ring, with nothing on their wrists.
I walked in on Peigi's arm.
She had insisted on the dress, and I had insisted on my own boots.
At the edge of the stones Hector waited with his cap in his hands.
He had gone five months without a drink.
His face was the face of a man who has been told to stand still and is trying.
"Ishbel," he said, very low.
I stopped.
It was the first time he had said my name since the card room.
He stood with his heart in his eyes and did not ask for anything.
"Aye," I said. "You may."
His shoulders came down.
That was all I gave him, and it was what he got.
Dugald was feeding the fire at the north cairn with split birch.
The red cord on his wrist had gone dark with soot, and he did not lift his head.
Coll stood alone in the middle of the ring, on the flat stone where the Reeve had once stood.
He wore a plain dark coat and no ring, and the seal hung at his neck on its cord.
The wolves went quiet as I came across the grass.
He watched me come the whole way, and his face did not move until I stopped in front of him.
"Wolves of Ardach," he said.
His voice carried to the trees.
"I've a question to put to this Moot. It is the Grey House that answers it, and no one else."
A low murmur went round the stones.
I felt the pull in the ring, as I had at Samhain.
It came up out of the ground and through the soles of my feet.
Every wolf in the circle leaned a little toward me, and I saw Coll's shoulders feel it.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of Sold to the Wolf Chief for a Debt, but His Wolf Knelt First are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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