Chapter 74: The First Challenge

Mairéad stood up at the head of the table and put her hands flat on the wood and looked at the weight.

“Say the words again,” she said.

“I claim the seat,” I said. “I am the daughter of Maeve’s daughter and I hold the weight of forty one and I put it on the table in front of the enforcer and the co-op and the Alpha.”

“And you know what a claim means.”

“I know what a claim means.”

“Then say it for the co-op,” Mairéad said. “Say the whole of it, because there are wolves in this hall who have never heard a claim made and who are going to hear one this morning and I am not going to have it said afterwards that the woman from Dublin did not know what she was doing.”

I turned round and looked at the whole hall.

“A claim means a challenge,” I said. “The Alpha answers it or forfeits the seat. If she answers it, it is on the headland at the full moon and it is between the two of us and no other wolf. And if she forfeits, the seat is vacant and the co-op chooses a new Alpha by vote.”

The hall was silent.

“Then I answer it,” Mairéad said.

The hall went up. The whole of it, forty wolves on their feet and shouting at once, and Ahern was on his feet with his hand up and Declan was beside me with his hand on my arm and my sister was at the front of the hall with her face white and Ronan was shouting something I could not hear.

“Sit down,” Ahern said. “Sit down and be quiet or I will clear this hall and hear the whole of it in the church with the door shut and the co-op outside.”

The hall sat down. It took a while.

Ahern put his hand flat on the table.

“There is a thing about this claim that the co-op does not know,” he said. “The woman Mairéad resigned the seat last night in this hall in writing in front of me and the whole co-op. And then she sent a paper down to the shop in the night saying she was not going to resign and that the Beta is a false mate and that she was going to say it in the hall in the morning. So there is a question that has to be answered before any claim is heard, and the question is whether Mairéad is the Alpha or not.”

“I am the Alpha,” Mairéad said. “I resigned nothing. The paper I signed last night was a paper I signed with a woman from Dublin standing over me and a healer who has been lying to this village for thirty six years and a Beta who has been lying to his mate since April. I signed it because I was tired and because I had been in that hall for two days and because I believed the things that were being said. And then I went up to my room and I sat in it and I read the charter in the night and I found the thing I had forgotten. A resignation that is made under duress is not a resignation. The charter says so. The charter says a wolf who resigns the seat while the co-op is not in the hall and while the wolf is not in her own mind is a wolf who has not resigned.”

“And were you not in your own mind?” Ahern said.

“I was tired and I was frightened and I was in a room with a woman who had been digging in the church and pulling safes out of wells for a week and I signed a paper to make her stop talking.” Mairéad put her hand on the table. “And this morning I am in my own mind and I am the Alpha and I answer the claim.”

The hall was very quiet.

Ahern looked at her for a long moment.

“Then there is a thing I have to say before the claim is answered,” he said. “I am the enforcer of this region and I have read the charter and I have read the second charter and I have read the cooper’s book and I have read the letters of my father. And there is a thing in the second charter that no one in this hall has said out loud this morning. A claim on the seat may be answered by the Alpha in a fight on the headland at the full moon. But a claim may also be answered by the Alpha in a vote in the hall, and the Alpha may choose the vote if the claim is made by a wolf of the blood and if the seat is not confirmed. And the seat of this pack has not been confirmed since 1961 and there is not a wolf in this hall who does not know it now.”

Mairéad turned round.

“That is not in the charter,” she said.

“It is in the second charter,” Ahern said. “The one that was in the press behind the frame since 1901. The one the woman Siobhan found in February. The one that is on the table in front of me.” He put his hand on the green book. “And there is a thing about it that I am going to read out loud. If a claimant is of the blood and the seat is not confirmed, the Alpha may answer the claim in a vote in the hall and the co-op shall choose between the claimant and the Alpha. And if the Alpha refuses the vote, the Alpha forfeits the seat.”

The hall went silent.

Mairéad stood at the head of the table and looked at the green book and then at Ahern and then at me.

“You are telling me,” she said, “that I have to choose between a fight on the headland and a vote in this hall.”

“I am telling you that the choice is yours and that the choice has to be made this morning.”

Mairéad was quiet for a long moment. Then she laughed. It was a small dry sound and it was not a happy one.

“A fight on the headland,” she said. “With a wolf who has been a wolf for a week. And a co-op that has just watched the healer do the asking and smelled a true bond and heard the cooper read a red book and heard the enforcer read the letters of his own father.” She looked at the hall. “If I choose the fight I lose the village. If I choose the vote I lose the seat.” She put her hand on the table. “Then I choose the fight. And I am going to say a thing before I do and I am going to say it in front of the enforcer and the whole co-op and it will be written down. If I win on the headland, the woman from Dublin goes out of this territory and her sister with her and the Beta with her. And if I lose, I go out of this territory and I do not come back and the co-op chooses its Alpha and I will not say a word against it.”

“Then the fight is on the headland,” Ahern said. “At the full moon. And there is a thing I have to say to the both of you before this hall empties. The full moon is tonight.”

The hall went up again. And this time nobody sat down.

I stood at the front of the hall with the weight in my hand and Declan beside me and my sister at my shoulder and the whole of it going round in my head.

And then Cormac was in front of me with his face white.

“You cannot fight her,” he said. “She has been a wolf for sixty years and you have been a wolf for a week. She will kill you on that headland and the co-op will watch her do it and there will not be a thing anyone can do.”

“I know.”

“Then do not do it.” He put his hand on my arm. “There is a thing I have not told you and I have been carrying it since the first night. In December, when she made the false bond, she did it in the hall with the whole co-op watching and she did it with the scent of a willing wolf. And the willing wolf was Bridget and Bridget is dead. So she cannot make another false bond. She has no scent and she has no wolf and she has no power left in this village.” He looked at me. “But there is a thing about the fight on the headland that the charter does not say. The Alpha does not have to fight alone. The Alpha can name a champion.”

The hall was still.

“Who can the Alpha name?” I said.

“Any wolf of the pack who is willing,” Cormac said. “And there is a wolf in this hall who has been the Beta of this pack for twenty years and who has been a wolf for forty five years and who has been waiting his whole life for a reason to stand against her.” He looked at his father. “And he is standing right beside you.”