The Forged Mark

f the wires above me and looked at the worn strap, and Cal

said. "Not to the p

ck up. "That's a strange place

ry where nobody walks in without knocking t

't drea

ke. It was not the way a strange wolf smells, not the sourness of a rogue or the old-cellar smell of a man who had been living alone too long. Under the pine and the snow it wa

l right

walk

er, and I had not thought about what it would be like to bring another wolf through that door. I set a match to the lamp and sa

d stepped back. "Before I open

t reinst

t my s

for something you

His jaw moved. "There's a difference, and you've been

not an

wrapped in oilcloth tied with twine. The cloth was stiff with frost. He put it down an

a square of black leather the size of a playing card, and pressed into the leather was a seal I knew. The Council of Alphas use

he table and d

id you g

shoulders with the fur side in, like a coat." Calder leaned against the back of the chair. "He was not a hunter. He had good boots and clea

d not come

g out past the ridge and nobody in the pack will say my name. So I took what I found and I kept it, and now Aldric i

ag," I

g sewn at the shoulder, the kind the mill used on bales of pelts t

g his boundary runs," I said. "Vest

d his arms. "I've brought this to you because you're the only wolf in this territory who has a reason to want

reaten me in

'm telling you what happens

and no stranger in her kitchen telling her about corpses in the trees. Instead I stood there and looked at the

use. There's a bunk room behind the office with a stov

s gene

pulled the oilcloth over the pelt and folded the corners in. "Tomorrow I want the rest of it. Where the body was. What h

dle. "You're not going

hat I think it matches, then tomorrow you and I are going to have a longer

topped with his hand on the latch an

look at me while he said it." He pulled the collar of his coat up. "There was a woman asking about him in town this morning. She ha

d she lo

r I was a trapper and did not know anything about the pack, and she wrote something in a

under the table and the lamp burning, and I thought about a Council woman dr

ound of his boots to fade, put on my coat, and went down t