Chapter 107: The Challenge to My Claim

The mill was not on fire.

The smoke was coming from the far end of the mill road, where the miller's house stood, and the light was not fire. It was a lantern and it was hanging from the porch rail and there was a truck in the yard and a wolf standing in front of the door.

It was Dale.

He had a lantern in one hand and a paper in the other and there were six wolves behind him with rifles and they were not pack wolves. They were in canvas and wool and they had the flat patient look of men who had been on the road.

I came down the road at a run with Elias and June and Mrs. Bell and twenty wolves behind me.

“Dale,” I said. “What is this?”

“Alpha,” Dale said. “I have been waiting for you.”

“What is this?”

“This is the Council’s answer,” Dale said. He held up the paper. “It came to the pack house an hour ago by rider. It is a Council order and it has a seal on it and it is signed by eleven Alphas and it says the mill land is not the Luna’s land and that the deed of 1891 is not void and that the claim of blood is not granted.” He put the paper on the porch rail. “And it says the Council has appointed a new Alpha for the mill land and the new Alpha is me.”

The road was quiet.

“Read it,” I said.

He read it.

It was a Council order. It said the Alphas of the north had reviewed the ruling of the Council of Alphas in Boise and had found it wanting, and that the ruling was suspended pending a further hearing, and that in the meantime the mill land and the east field were to be held by a new Alpha appointed by the Council. It said the new Alpha was Dale of the Palouse Ridge pack. It said the appointment took effect at once.

“Eleven Alphas,” I said. “There are thirty-three on the Council and twenty-two voted against the chief clerk.”

“There are thirty-three on the Council and eleven of them have signed this order,” Dale said. “And eleven is enough to suspend a ruling if the ruling is contested and the contest is filed in the north.” He put the paper down. “They filed it in the north. They filed it the same day the Alphas ruled and they have been holding it for three days.”

Elias stepped forward.

“You have been in the pack house,” he said. “You have been under guard since Boise.”

“I have been under guard,” Dale said. “And the guard was two of the Corrigan boys and a boy of nineteen from the Kessler pack. The rider came to the pack house and the Corrigan boys brought the paper to me and asked me what it said and I read it to them.” He looked at me. “And then I went to the barn and I got my truck and I came here because I knew you were coming and I did not want you to find out from a rider in the square.”

I stood in the road.

“Then you are the Alpha of the mill land,” I said.

“I am the Alpha of the mill land.”

“And you are going to hold it against me.”

Dale was quiet.

“I am going to hold it,” he said. “Not against you. For the wolves who are going to be cast out.” He put the lantern on the rail. “Alpha, I told you in the square that I was going to build a pack on the mill land and I told you I would answer to you. And then the Council sent a paper and the paper says I do not answer to you. It says I answer to them.” He looked at me. “So I am going to do a thing that I have been thinking about since the rider came. I am going to stand in the circle at the full moon with the wolves who come to me and I am going to claim the mill land in the old way.”

The road was silent.

“The old way,” I said.

“The old way. The way the Alphas said the land has to be claimed. In the circle, at the full moon, with the pack as witness.” Dale put his hand on the rail. “You are going to claim the territory and I am going to claim the mill land. And the Council will be there and the Alphas will be there and the whole of it will be decided in one night.”

I stood in the road.

“You are challenging me,” I said.

“I am challenging your claim to the mill land,” Dale said. “Not to the territory. To the mill land and the east field and the circle.” He looked at me. “And if you win, the mill land is yours and I will be the wolf who lost the challenge and I will go to the Alphas and answer for my brother’s death and I will not fight it. And if I win, the mill land is mine and the wolves who come to me will have a place and I will still answer to the Alphas for what I did.” He put his hand out. “I am not doing this to hurt you. I am doing this because there are forty wolves in this territory who stood with the Council and lost their farms and their shares and their place and they have nowhere to go. And I am the only wolf in this territory who can give them a place.”

I looked at him.

“You are the wolf who killed my brother,” I said.

“I am the wolf who killed your brother.”

“And you are standing in front of me with a Council paper in your hand and a pack of wolves behind you and you are asking me to fight you at the full moon.”

“I am asking you to fight me at the full moon,” Dale said. “And I am asking you to win. Because if you win, the Council has no claim on the mill land and no claim on the territory and no claim on anything. And if I win, the Council has a foothold in this territory and they will use it and they will use me and they will take the land back.” He looked at me. “So I am asking you to win.”

The road was quiet.

And then June said, “Wren. You cannot fight him at the full moon. The full moon is the night of the curse. You have to be in the circle with Elias and the stones and the whole of the pack.”

“I know,” I said.

“Then how can you fight him?”

I stood in the road.

“I do not know,” I said. “But I am going to find out.”

And then a wolf came up the mill road from the direction of the co-op with a lantern in his hand and his coat open and his face white.

It was Silas.

“Alpha,” he said. “There is a car coming down the co-op road and it has the Council seal on the door and there are two men in it and one of them is the archivist and the other one is a wolf I have never seen.”

“What does he want?”

“He has a warrant,” Silas said. “He has a warrant for your arrest on the charge of claiming a territory under a false deed. And he has a second warrant for Elias on the charge of being a cursed wolf in a territory where the curse has been declared void.”

I stood in the road.

“The curse has been declared void,” I said.

“The eleven Alphas in the north have declared it void,” Silas said. “They have ruled that the curse does not exist and that the wolf known as Elias is a rogue and that the whole of the Luna’s claim is a fraud.” He looked at me. “And they have ruled that the Alpha of the Palouse Ridge pack is to be arrested and held until the full moon.”

The road was quiet.

And then Elias said, “Wren. Let them take me.”

I turned around.

“No,” I said.

“If they take me, they cannot hold the challenge,” Elias said. “The challenge is between you and Dale. The curse is between you and me. If they take me to Boise, the challenge still happens and you still claim the territory and the mill land and the whole of it.” He put his hand on my arm. “And I will be in a cell in Boise and I will be alive and the curse will still be on me and the full moon will still come.”

“And if they do not take you to Boise?” I said. “If they take you to the north and they put you in a cell in the north and the full moon comes and you change and there is nobody there but the Alphas who declared the curse void?”

Elias was quiet.

“Then you will have to come and get me,” he said.

The car came down the co-op road and stopped at the end of the mill road and the archivist got out with a paper in his hand.

“Alpha,” he said. “I have a warrant.”