Wrong Girl, Right Alpha novel · Chapter 44 of 48

Chapter 44: The Night Before

The beta told it at the council table, with Dane beside him holding a wet cloth to his own eye.

"Forty more pups are on the list for caps this winter," the beta said.

"I've held the list for two years. I thought it was custom."

"And now?" Ronan said.

"Now I've counted the graves against the list, and they match."

He put a cap blank on the table next to the mold.

"I'll be at the ford at moonrise with every wolf who's seen this.

When Boyd shows his teeth in the ring, I'll call the pack.

Blackwater law lets the beta ask for a vote, and I think I'll have it."

"You think," I said.

"I've never been so scared in my life, Luna."

Ronan looked at Dane.

"Did she hurt you?"

"The men did." Dane touched his lip.

"Mother opened the door. She sat me down and gave me soup.

She locked it behind her when she went to tell Boyd I was there."

"And you got out."

"Through the coal chute. The latch was off." He frowned. "I don't know who took it off."

Nobody said her name.

The council broke up at four.

I went home to wash the blood out of Dane's collar, because I needed something to do with my hands.

Ronan found me at the sink at half past five.

The sun was low and orange through the window.

The sundown bell was still an hour off.

He stood in the kitchen doorway with his shirt open.

"It's before sundown," he said.

I turned.

"I'm going to say all of it," he said. "Now. While there's light, and so it's kept."

My hands went still in the water.

"I'm afraid you'll run, and you won't get up.

"I'm afraid I'll stand on that ridge and watch the pack shut its doors, as it did a hundred winters ago.

"I'm afraid I'll have my wife in my arms and nothing in them.

"I'm afraid that Hazel will grow up with my face in a photograph.

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