The Alpha Who Said Nothing

our and a half, and

llotments and the precise number of wolves each pack could bring to a Council meeting. A paragraph about grazing rights. Two pages about how disputes over the water station would

ed the part I

of age, and the other pack shall stand without a Luna, that pack which lacks a Luna may request of the other a woman of

," I said. "Nobody told me that.

o days, if the frost holds. In a

house full of wol

ears it is fewer." He turned the pa

odd

r standing. The mark shall be given by the Alpha of the house, upon the palm or the throat as the two shall agree,

up down. "

iven with scent, and with the laying on of hands, and with words spoken aloud, in the manner

h sc

es

sce

ur palm or your throat, so that the pa

ictured something ceremonial and distant, a ribbon, a cut on the arm, an old man chanting. Not

does it la

looked at me. "The mark will fade when the frost breaks, and you will go home

it doesn

ack will know the bond was true, and the Counci

and I had a feeling he would not tell me if I did. So I asked the other qu

to the last b

turned the book over in his hand

your mother's cousin," he

in the box in my drawer at home. I had read i

ied,"

rost broke. The records say she took a fever." He met my eyes. "I was el

y n

id not believe

morning sun and the highway and a truck going past with a load of pipe,

Alpha the

grand

at did

she took a fever." He opened to the pag

aid. "Read

at every ritual of the season. There were clauses about what happened if she left before the frost broke. There was a long, dull passage about the Council's ri

has judged it," he read. "And if the moon shall judge the mark true,

red a

oes tha

s what i

us

arking is real, the water rights that the packs have argued over for two hundred years would pass to the

ls, and my brother, and the wells that had been goin

ows about th

ry

ria

nder his arm and walked to the door. When he turned back, hi

house. And if I were you, Marisol, I would count the days until the marking ceremony, and I

ned th

efore the Council envoy arrives. That gives you four da

on the edge of the bed with my c

s and the whole pack and laid his scent on me so that everyone would know which

h with two other wolves, and they were talking, and one of them was laughing. Dorian was

w, a small, mocking salute, and then he turned and wa

re gone. Then I went to the dresser and picked

s," I sai