What the Mark Knows

saly left, and I did not let go of th

a? I have read section twenty. It says the Registrar may appoint a guardian

s folded across her cardigan, and her shoulders were set in

t to the Registrar's discretion. Sometimes it is a physical examination. Sometimes it

s a blank page with the

t is written, Nia.

lped wr

e was pale, and I knew I had struck

did yo

re on the committee that drafted the current version of the licensing act. I remember, because I asked

sk and sat down slowly, a

e people who wanted the bond to be a private matter between wolves and the Registry to have no say in it. We drafted the appe

ou sig

for order, and I signed it." She looked up. "I have spent twenty years s

as open on the desk between us, and I took one

ones from before the current act. The ones you

l on the desk. "There

trying to keep the act from being used. You di

ia

e morning by a man Halden chose to decide whether I am fit to be a Luna, and you are telling me to l

ed them, they were wet, and she blin

s certified over the years. The ones where the certification did not match the facts. The

er my chair. "Certified a

fying a bond when the scent and the mark are present but the pair are not willing. It was writt

ther pu

om the bar. Let them assign counsel to your mate and go north, to the coast, where there are packs that do not register and Registrars who do not come.

d K

feral wolf. He has lived his whole life outside the Registry, and he will

certified to anyone else. The bond is with

e clock, and then she looked at me, and her face was the face of a

n his name alone, and the Registry will appoint a guardian to manage it. A guardia

because my mouth had gone dry and sour, and I pic

ia

th my hand o

r mother died. Did anyone ever examine you? At

ne have tested me? I was a child

, and then the phone on her desk rang, a single shrill

u going to

can

once. It will

ed, and her eyes came up to my face, and she said, "Yes, sh

r of your mate, and he says he has information about the bite that the Registry does not have."

s," I

o down th

der full of blank pages and a mentor who will no

y the time I reached the lobby I had decided two things. I was going to hear what Elias had t

air wet from the rain and his green eyes moving over the

ved him out of the holding cell an hour a

ed in my hand. "

ld not read. "And there is something else. When they took him through the che

old

hat was n