Chapter 4: The Red

Nobody got much sleep, and by dawn the road below the north fence was full.

Ironwood stood on one side in our pack jackets.

The King's army stood on the other, a hundred black coats in the frost.

Dad had made me stand beside Mom in the second row, where he could see me.

Last night in the kitchen I had answered Lester's questions as plainly as I could.

I told him I didn't know why the King had heard me, and that was the truth.

Lester had patted my hand and said he was sure it would all be cleared up.

Now he stood at Dad's elbow again, wearing his good jacket.

Dad and the King walked out to the middle of the road and stopped three paces apart.

"Alpha Kinross," the King said. "I'll ask once more, politely. Give me the girl."

"I've told you, my King, she's a guest," Dad said. "I don't give guests away, and I don't know her."

"You don't know her."

"No."

"Then why do you stand between her and me?" the King asked.

Dad opened his mouth, and nothing came out.

I could see him searching for the answer.

I wanted to shout it at him across the road, because the answer was that I was his daughter.

Instead I watched the King's hands.

They had started to shake.

It began in his fingers and moved up his wrists, and he closed them into fists to hide it.

His shoulders went tight under the black coat.

The wolves behind him shifted, and the one at the front, a gray-haired woman with a soldier's stance, took a quick step forward.

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