Chapter 118: The Gamma Challenge

I went down the stairs and out into the yard with the wire in my hand and the whole of the pack in front of me.

“Pack,” I said. “The older Corrigan boy has gone. He has gone to the north road and he has been sending wires to the eleven Alphas of the north since the tribunal.” I held up the wire. “He has been the wolf in this territory. He has been the one who told the north where the circle is and when the pack is going to stand in it.”

The yard was silent.

And then the younger Corrigan boy came out of the crowd and stood in front of me.

He was nineteen and he had his father’s red face and his mother’s freckles and he was shaking.

“Alpha,” he said. “I want to challenge for the Gamma position.”

The yard moved.

“What?” I said.

“The Gamma position is empty,” he said. “It has been empty since you became Alpha. And I am the only wolf in this pack who is a Corrigan and I am standing here in front of the whole pack and I am challenging for it.”

I looked at him.

“Your brother is a traitor,” I said.

“My brother is a traitor,” he said. “And I am not. And I am not going to spend the rest of my life being the brother of the wolf who sold this pack to the north.” He put his hands at his sides. “Let me fight for it. Let me fight in front of the whole pack and let the pack see that a Corrigan can stand.”

The yard was silent.

And then Mrs. Pike said, “Let him fight.”

And the Corrigan boy’s mother came out of the crowd and stood beside him and said, “Let him fight.”

I looked at the yard.

“Who does he fight?” I said. “The Gamma position is not a thing I can give away. It is a thing that has to be fought for and there has to be a wolf in it to fight.”

And then Dale came out of the pack house.

He was in his shirt with his hands tied and the two wolves on either side of him and he stopped at the bottom of the steps.

“Alpha,” he said. “I will fight him.”

The yard broke into noise.

I held up my hand and the yard went quiet.

“You are a prisoner,” I said.

“I am a prisoner,” Dale said. “And I am also the wolf who held the Gamma position in this pack for six years and I am the wolf who put a knife in Owen Halloran. And I have been sitting in a room in that pack house for a week and I have been thinking about what I can do before the Alphas take me.” He looked at the Corrigan boy. “Let me fight him. If he wins, he is the Gamma and I go to the Alphas and I do not come back. If I win, I go to the Alphas and I do not come back anyway.” He put his hands out. “Either way I do not come back. So let it be a fight and not a hanging.”

I looked at him for a long moment.

And then I looked at the Corrigan boy.

“Do you want this?” I said.

“I want it,” he said.

I turned and looked at the pack.

“Then it is a challenge for the Gamma position,” I said. “In the square. Now. In front of the whole pack.”

The square was cleared and the lanterns were brought out and the whole of the Luna’s line came in from the fields and the roads and the ridge and stood at the edge of the square.

I stood in the middle of it with Elias beside me.

“The challenge is for the Gamma position,” I said. “The rules are the rules of this pack. No silver and no knife and no teeth in the throat. The fight ends when one wolf yields or when one wolf cannot stand.”

I looked at Dale and the Corrigan boy.

“Begin,” I said.

They went for each other.

The Corrigan boy was nineteen and he was fast and he was strong and he had been wrestling his brother in the barn since he was six years old. Dale was thirty-four and he was bigger and he had been fighting in this square since before the boy was born and he had silver knuckles in his pocket and he did not use them.

They went around the square four times.

The Corrigan boy put Dale down twice and Dale put the Corrigan boy down three times and the pack was shouting and the lanterns were swinging and the snow was coming down.

And then Dale got the boy in a hold and the boy could not get out and Dale held him there and did not put him down and did not hurt him.

“Yield,” Dale said.

“No,” the boy said.

“Yield,” Dale said again. “You are nineteen and you have a whole life in front of you and I am going to be dead or in a cell by the full moon. Yield and take the rank.”

The boy was quiet.

And then he said, “I yield.”

Dale let him go and stood up and pulled him to his feet.

The square was silent.

“Then the Gamma position is decided,” I said. “Dale of the Palouse Ridge pack is the Gamma.”

The square broke into noise.

And then Dale came and stood in front of me.

“Alpha,” he said. “I am going to say a thing and I am going to say it in front of the pack. I killed your brother and I took the Council’s money and I have been the worst Gamma this pack has ever had. And I am going to be the Gamma who stands in the front of the line at the full moon and I am going to be the Gamma who answers for the whole of it in front of the Alphas.” He put his hand on his chest. “And I am going to do it because the boy in the square could not and because there is nobody else.”

I looked at him.

“Then stand in the front of the line,” I said.

And then a wolf came running across the square.

It was the younger Corrigan boy and he was white to the lips.

“Alpha,” he said. “There is a light on the ridge. It is the north road and there are trucks on it and there are wolves on it and they are coming down.”

I turned around.

“How many?” I said.

“I do not know,” he said. “But there is a wolf in front of them with a lantern and he is a Corrigan and he is my brother and he is coming down the ridge road with the whole of the north behind him.”

I stood in the square.

“Then the war is here,” I said.