Chapter 132: The Truth About Elias

The square was silent and the whole of the pack was looking at Elias and Elias was looking at me.

“You were there,” I said. “In 1953. When my mother signed the contract.”

“I was there,” he said. “I was twenty-nine years old and I had been on my own for seven years and I was working on a fishing boat in Oregon and I had come inland for the winter to look for work. I was in Walla Walla and I was in a churchyard on a Sunday morning and there was a woman sitting on a bench with a green scarf around her neck.”

“That was 1968,” I said. “You told me it was 1968.”

“That was 1968,” Elias said. “And this was 1953 and the woman was your mother and she was twenty-three years old and she was not sitting on a bench. She was standing in the doorway of a house in Walla Walla with a paper in her hand and she was crying.”

I stood in the square.

“Go on,” I said.

“I had come to Walla Walla because the curse had brought me there. The new moon had taken me east and I woke up in a field outside the town and I walked in and I found a church and I sat down in the back and I did not know where I was.” He put his hand on the rail. “And a woman came in and sat down beside me and she said, you are the cursed one. And I said, how do you know. And she said, because I have been looking for you.”

I stood in the square.

“She was looking for you,” I said.

“She was looking for the cursed wolf,” Elias said. “She had been looking for the cursed wolf since 1948 when the boy died on the Walla Walla road. And she had a paper in her hand and the paper was the contract and she told me what it was and she asked me what she should do.” He looked at me. “And I told her not to sign it.”

The square was silent.

“She signed it anyway,” I said.

“She signed it anyway,” Elias said. “She said the Council would take the land and the house and the whole of the family if she did not sign and she said she would rather give up a daughter than lose a son. And I said, there is another way. And she said, what way. And I said, I will take the child.”

I sat down on the steps.

“You offered to take me,” I said.

“I offered to take you,” Elias said. “I said I would take the child and I would raise her in the east and the Council would never find her. And she looked at me for a long time and then she said, no. She said, if I give her to you she will grow up in the trees with a cursed wolf and she will never know what she is. And if I keep her she will grow up in the territory with a mother and a brother and a sister and she will know the ground.” He put his hand on the rail. “And then she said a thing I have never forgotten. She said, she will be the Luna and she will come home and I am not going to send her away from home.”

I put my hand over my mouth.

“So she kept me,” I said.

“She kept you,” Elias said. “And she went to Erik Renn and she asked him to watch you and to keep you out of the Council’s hands and Erik Renn did it because he had been waiting for the Luna’s line since 1891.” He looked at me. “And then she went to the Council and she signed the contract and the Council voided it and nobody told her and she paid the rent for twenty-two years.”

I sat on the steps.

“And you,” I said. “What did you do?”

Elias was quiet.

“I went east,” he said. “I went east and I stayed east and I did not come back to this territory for fifteen years. And then in 1968 the curse brought me back and I was in a churchyard in Walla Walla and there was a woman sitting on a bench with a green scarf around her neck.”

“And she was my mother,” I said.

“She was your mother,” Elias said. “And she was forty years old and she was tired and she had three children and she had been paying the rent for fifteen years and she looked at me and she said, you are the cursed one. And I said, I am. And she said, I have a daughter and she is fifteen years old and she is the Luna’s line and I do not know what to do.”

The square was silent.

“And what did you say?” I said.

“I said, tell her,” Elias said. “I said, tell her what she is and tell her about the curse and tell her about the circle and let her decide. And she said, if I tell her she will go to the Alphas and the Council will drive her out and she will be a rogue at fifteen years old. And I said, then do not tell her. And she said, then she will never know and the curse will take her brother and it will take her children and it will never end.” He put his hand on the rail. “And she sat on that bench and she cried and then she stood up and she said, if you ever meet my daughter, tell her I am sorry.”

I sat on the steps.

“And then you came to this territory,” I said.

“And then I came to this territory,” Elias said. “Seventeen years later. The curse brought me here in April and I woke up in the north field and I did not know why. And then in July the new moon took me to the north line and I woke up in the dirt and I found a calf in a combine yard and a woman with golden hair and a knife.” He looked at me. “And I knew who she was before she told me her name.”

I stood up.

“You knew,” I said.

“I knew,” Elias said. “I knew you were Mary’s daughter and I knew you were the Luna’s line and I knew the whole of it before you said a word. And I did not tell you because I did not know if you knew and because I did not want to be the wolf who brought the Council down on you.” He put his hand on the rail. “And then you took me into the co-op and you gave me your brother’s coat and you told me you were not going to let the pack take me. And I have been protecting you since the day I found you in that field.”

I stood in the square.

“You have been protecting me,” I said.

“I have been protecting you,” Elias said. “Not because of the curse and not because of the bond and not because of the Council. Because your mother asked me to and because I promised her and because I have been keeping that promise for twenty-six years.”

I went down the steps and across the square and put my hands on his face.

“You have been keeping a promise to my mother for twenty-six years,” I said.

“I have.”

“And you did not tell me.”

“I did not tell you because I did not know how to say it,” Elias said. “Because every time I tried to say it I sounded like a wolf who had come to a territory to find a girl he had been promised. And I did not come to find a girl. I came because the curse brought me and I stayed because of you.”

I put my forehead against his.

“I am not angry,” I said.

“You are not?”

“I am not angry. I am tired and I am going to have a baby and I am standing in a square with a ledger in my hand and the whole of the territory on my shoulders. And I am not angry.” I pulled back. “But there is a thing I want from you.”

“Anything.”

“I want you to stop protecting me,” I said. “I want you to stand beside me and not in front of me. I want you to tell me the whole of it when you know it and not when it is the right time. And I want you to let me stand in the circle at the full moon with the whole of the pack and not try to take my place.”

He looked at me.

“I will try,” he said.

“That is all I am asking.”

And then June came down the steps with a wire in her hand.

“Wren,” she said. “The Council’s envoys are at the gap. They have come for the keeper and they have a paper from the full Council of Alphas and they are not going to wait for the full moon.”

I turned around.

“Then they are going to have to come into the square,” I said.