Chapter 19: Orson Runs

By noon the whole pack stood at the fire ground.

The ones who had walked out the night before had not come back.

Those who had stayed numbered a hundred and ten.

They filled the clearing from the stone to the tree line.

Rowena stood on the bottom edge of the Founders' Stone with Junie leaning on one shoulder and Lachlan ten feet away.

She had not looked at him once since dawn.

She could still feel him on her skin.

Hester climbed onto the stone with the four pages in both hands.

She had changed into her best black dress. Her white braid was pinned up, and she looked very small.

"Forty years ago I swore on this rock never to say what happened here," she said.

"A Kerr has said it. My oath is done."

"Now I'll say the rest."

She did.

She told them about the first frost and the fifty wolves.

She told them about the thirty-one names, and the children.

She told them about the baby she had carried down to the creek inside her coat.

She read each name aloud, slowly.

Women wept at the benches. A man near the front put his face in his hands.

The old elder with the shaking hand stood up before she finished.

"I was twelve," he said. "My father told me to forget. I did. God forgive me, I did."

"We all did," someone said.

When Hester read the last name, nobody breathed.

"There is one more thing," she said. "The girl I raised is the baby's daughter. Ada's daughter. Rowena Hartnell."

"The land has no Alpha but a Hartnell. The seat was never ours to give."

The elders conferred in whispers on the front bench.

Seven were still left of the twelve. They looked at each other.

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