Chapter Forty-One

I looked out the window.At the passing scenery. At the particular quality of the sky that exists in that hour after a great morning when the world has returned to its usual rhythm and is simply moving on being the world no matter what.“He wants to come to Coldridge," I said. “When he’s ready. I told him that’s where the door was.”Damien was silent for a moment.“And what’s your reaction to that?” he asked.I thought about it honestly.“Like I left a door open,” I said. “Which is not the same thing as opening a door. The door exists. What occurs with it is still -- coming. But I'm glad it's out there.” I paused. "Is that—"“Yes,” he said. Before I finished.“You don’t know what I was going to ask.”“You were going to ask whether it was alright,” he said. “With the pack. With me. With the situation.” He gave me a quick look. “It’s all right.” With all of those things.”I looked at him.“Forty-nine is a flexible number,” he said. “In principle.”A warm feeling passed through my chest

Chapter Forty-Two

Cassius emerged from the east side of the court.He looked at me.I looked at him.“Alpha returned,” he said. To the yard. Formally - a certain senior enforcer confirming a status for the record. Then— less formally — directly to me — “Kaelith returned.”Something about those phrase attached together — with equal weight, with equal significance and rolled right off the tongue of the very wolf that had challenged my intrusion into this packs territory just three weeks ago -I looked at Cassius.“Thank you,” I told him.He nodded. The same nod as before— the nod with which decisions are reached, the nod with which decisions are filed. Then he left again for the east side of the yard, with the air of one who had uttered the necessary words and was now returning to the practical.Sasha emerged from the second vehicle — for the ride had been with Rhen, for two hours she had presumably been strategically patient riding with Rhen, and then staked out around from her left stand as one who had

Chapter Forty-Three

Damien appeared next to me.Shoulder taken care of — I could make out the exact manner in which Petra had strapped it, practical and effective. He was carrying a mug of something hot and staring at Lily now thoroughly engaged in a conversation with Cora and Ellis with the look he got when he was looking at something that validated information.“She’s going to be fine here,” he said.“She’s already fine here,” I said.“Yes,” he said. “That too.”We stood in the doorway of the pack house dining room on a Saturday afternoon in October in Coldridge and witnessed the very fact of a returned Alpha and his mate and a twenty-two year old who had decided she belonged here and was, characteristically, just going ahead and belonging.“Thank you,” I said.He was watching me.“For what specifically?” he asked.“For coming back,” I said. “For the lodge. For forty-nine.” I paused. “For the last three weeks.”He got quiet for a moment.“You came into my woods,” he said. “Everything after that was ine

Chapter Forty-Four

“The Council proceedings for reparations,” he continued. “On a six-week timetable. Different panel, as Elder Voss said. We have already been documented. Rhen’s evidence package was—” He hesitated with the expression of someone who was about to pay a compliment that also happened to be a harsh assessment. “Thorough.”“It was,” I agreed.“The last of the Varen Pack,” he said. His voice slid a bit — the precise slide of someone reaching the part of the briefing that would demand more delicacy. “Forty-one wolves who were not Rokan and were not part of Rokan’s immediate inner circle. They’re in territory with no Alpha, a leadership system that has crumbled, and sixty thousand acres they no longer legally have.” He looked at his folder. “Twelve of them have come forward already with individual petitions to the Council seeking independent wolf status. Seven more are expected to follow.” He paused. “The other twenty-two — what can I say: . Some are going to try to reorganize under a new Alpha

Chapter Forty-Five

We went to the sitting-room, where the light was better and she made me sit down on the sofa, and she examined my shoulder with that particular concentrated attention she applied to everything — not clinical, not detached, the attention of a person who cared about results and was using thoroughness as a form of caring.“Petra did a good job,” she said.“She always does,” I said.“Does it hurt?”“Yes,” I said. “Moderately. Not as much as this morning.”“Good.” She sat down next to me. Not diagonally across from me — next to me, the natural formation of two people who’d ceased their masquerade that side-by-side wasn’t the more honest approach. “It’ll be worse tomorrow.”“I know,” I said.“I’ll be here tomorrow,” she said.I looked at her.“You don’t have to—”“Damien.” The patient voice again. “I’ll be here tomorrow. That’s not an offer. It’s a plan I’ve made.” She held my gaze with the blunt directness of someone who no longer sought permission for things she’d already resolved herself

Chapter Forty-Six

Rhen knocked at six.Two taps.“Come in,” I said.He appeared in the sitting room doorway with his folder and the expression of a man who had found something he’d been looking for.“The border crossing records,” he said. “I have an identity.”I sat up.Mara looked at him.He came in.Looked at the folder.Then looked at me with an expression I hadn’t seen on Rhen before — not concern exactly, more the specific quality of someone who has found information that requires the recipient to have a moment with it before anything else happens.“It’s a wolf from a pack that dissolved fifteen years ago,” he said. “The Northern Vale Pack. They were absorbed by the Council after their Alpha died without succession. The remaining wolves were redistributed to registered packs.” He paused. “Most of them.”“Most,” I said.“One wolf declined redistribution,” he said. “Left the region entirely. No pack registration since. No territorial affiliation. Just — moving. For fifteen years.” He paused. “Until