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Chapter 105: A New Pack

Author: Kurgusal Izdusumler
last update publish date: 2026-10-26 00:17:52

The vote took four hours.

The chief clerk called it and the thirty-three Alphas voted and the Coeur d'Alene Alpha voted against him and then the Alpha of the Clearwater pack voted against him and then the Alpha of the Salmon River pack voted against him and then it went the other way for a while and then it came back.

At the end of it there were twenty-two votes against the chief clerk and eleven for him.

The twenty-two were enough.

Ada Kessler brought her stick down on the floor and said, "The chief clerk is removed from his position. The motion to arrest the Beta is denied. The motion to declare the Palouse territory rogue is denied. And the seven Alphas who sat on the tribunal are confirmed in their seats."

The chamber broke into noise and it did not stop.

They took the chief clerk out in chains and they took his folder and his papers and they put them in a crate with the rest of it and they sealed the crate with the Council seal.

And then Ada Kessler came to me.

"Beta," she said. "The land is yours. The Luna's line and the founders' line. And there is a thing you have to do before you go home."

"What thing?"

"You have to decide what to do with it," she said. "And you have to do it in front of this chamber."

I stood in the shaft of light.

"The land belongs to the Luna's line," I said. "And the Luna's line is five packs and four hundred and six names and every wolf in the Palouse territory who has been farming that ground for eighty-five years." I looked at the Alphas. "So I am not going to keep it. I am going to give it to the wolves who worked it."

The chamber was quiet.

"I am going to write a deed," I said. "And the deed is going to have every wolf in the Palouse territory on it. Not the Luna's line and not the founders' line. Every wolf who has a farm and a house and a share in the co-op. And the mill land and the east field and the circle are going to be held in common by the pack and nobody is going to be able to sell them."

Ada Kessler looked at me.

"And the Luna's line?" she said.

"The Luna's line is the pack," I said. "It has been the pack since 1891 and nobody knew it. And I am not going to stand in front of this chamber and take the land away from the wolves who have been living on it. That is what the Council did. I am not going to do it."

The chamber was silent.

And then the Coeur d'Alene Alpha stood up.

"Beta," he said. "I have been an Alpha for thirty years and I have never heard a wolf give away a territory in front of the Council of Alphas." He looked at the other Alphas. "I am going to sign that deed."

"And I," said the Clearwater Alpha.

"And I," said the Salmon River Alpha.

I stood in the shaft of light.

And then Harlan came down the aisle with his hat in his hand and his face gray and he stopped in front of me.

"Beta," he said. "There is a thing I have to say in front of this chamber and I am going to say it now because I do not know how much longer I have." He put his hat on the table. "I have been the Alpha of the Palouse Ridge pack for twenty-two years and I have signed the Council's paper and I have closed my eyes to the cull and I have let a wolf be hunted in my own territory. I am not fit to be Alpha." He looked at me. "I am going to step down. And I am going to ask this chamber to confirm Wren Halloran as the Alpha of the Palouse Ridge pack."

The chamber was silent.

"Alpha," I said.

"I am not the Alpha," Harlan said. "I have not been the Alpha for a long time. I have been a wolf who signed what was put in front of him and went home to his supper." He put his hand on my arm. "You are the Alpha. You have been the Alpha since the calf in the combine yard. You just did not have the title."

I stood in the shaft of light.

Ada Kessler brought her stick down on the floor.

"The chamber will vote," she said.

They voted. It took ten minutes and it was not close.

And then Ada Kessler stood up and put her hand on my shoulder.

"Alpha," she said. "The Palouse Ridge pack is yours."

We went home three days later.

The road was clear and the snow was gone and the wheat was coming up green in the fields. We came over the ridge at noon and the pack was in the square and the square was full and the whole of the territory was there.

There were wolves from the Palouse and wolves from the Kessler and wolves from the Riverside and wolves from Walla Walla. There were forty wolves from the mountains who had come down on foot. There were the Corrigan boys and Mrs. Pike and Harold and the co-op men and the farmers from the west line.

And at the front of them there was June with the ledger under her arm and Maeve with her shawl and Clara Renn with her white hair down and a box in her hands.

I got out of the truck.

"Pack," I said. "The Council has ruled. The land is the Luna's line and the Luna's line is the pack. And I am going to write a deed that has every wolf in this territory on it and I am going to ask every wolf in this territory to sign it."

The square roared.

And then Dale came out of the pack house.

He was in his shirt with his hands tied and the Corrigan boys on either side of him and he stopped in front of me.

"Alpha," he said.

"Dale."

"I have been in the pack house since Boise," he said. "And I have been thinking about what I am going to do with the rest of my life. And there is a thing I want to ask you."

"Ask it."

"The mill land," Dale said. "It is yours now. The mill and the east field and the circle. And there are wolves in this territory who are going to be cast out because they stood with the Council. There are wolves who are going to lose their farms and their shares and their place in the pack." He looked at me. "Let me take them."

I looked at him.

"Take them where?"

"To the mill land," Dale said. "I will build a pack on the mill land. A pack for the wolves who have nowhere else to go. I will be the Alpha of the wolves who were cast out and I will answer to you and I will keep them out of the Council's hands." He put his hand on his chest. "I killed your brother and I cannot undo it. But I can build something on the land he died for."

The square was silent.

And then June said, "Wren. Look."

She was standing at the edge of the square with the ledger in her hands and she was pointing at the pack house porch.

There was something on the porch.

It was a small thing and it was tied with string and it was hanging from the rail.

It was a doll made out of grain.

And there was a note tied to it.

I went up the steps and took it down and read the note.

It said: the mill land is not yours and it is not his. It is the Council's and the Council is coming for it.

And under it there was a mark.

The circle with the line through it.

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