The Pack Calls Him Killer

wan put his head round it with his face grey in the lamplight and said the Alpha wanted the whole pack in the hall. Now. Fiona looked at me

e estate, and the benches were pushed back against the walls, and the big fire was roaring, and the smell of wet coats and cold skin filled the place up t

ack look at him. He was a big man still, but the grey had gone out of his face into something paler than grey, and his hands were not shaki

said. "I have never been a man for long spe

hed, quietly,

way an old wolf dies. I will not pretend otherwise in my own hall. Something was done to her, and it was done by someone wi

d. I felt it through the

will be asking questions before the month is out, and they will want to know who holds the rites, because t

I felt them the way a hare feels the eyes of

they squeaked on the flags, and I heard that squeak all the way, and

on my shoulder. "Do

me since I was a girl,"

tle goes with them." He raised his voice. "I name Isla Luna of the Cairn Pack

t most of the pack just looked at me with their faces working, and I knew what they were thinking because I was thinking it too. I was the gamekeeper. I w

d on a beat too long. "Luna," he said, loud enough for the front three rows. "The pack is fortu

anything," I said.

t, I think." He let go of my hand. "It is a heavy thing, to be a Luna in a mourn

a bad taste in my mouth. I thanked him and st

wolf leaves this territory without my word. And every wolf in this house will giv

t moved from the window, and now every head in the place swung rou

your account to me and to the Lu

Callu

st

, Fa

he back say that she had always thought there was something strange about the Alpha's brother, and her neighbour said he had a temper on him, a

moved. He s

hority in that hall that anybody would respect, and Rabbie was watching me with

he hill alone," I sa

again. That was wo

r run, sheltering from the storm. He was with me until the burial bell rang. So i

been in my own cottage with Mairi asleep in the next room and no one to say otherwise. I had opened my mouth and a lie had

ut it. He looked at me with that warm, patient face and he

ked at me for a long moment across the fire, and his eyes were old and tired and n

e foot of the stairs b

s low. "You just lied to the whole pack for

said. "I

en

ight and his eyes were green and steady and he was standi

brother's coat," I said. "And I would rather hear you answer t