Chapter 141: A New Pack

We carried him up to the circle on a door taken off the pack house and we put him on the flat stone with the two stones beside him and Maeve worked on him for six hours.

The silver had gone deep and it had gone into the lung and there was blood in his mouth and Maeve cut and stitched and cut again and the whole of the clearing was silent and the whole of the line sat in the moss and waited.

At midnight Maeve sat back on her heels.

“He is breathing,” she said. “The silver is out and the lung is holding and he is breathing. But he is not going to wake for a day and he is not going to stand for a week and he is not going to be the keeper for a month.”

I sat on the stone beside him.

“Will he live?” I said.

“He will live,” Maeve said. “He is a stubborn wolf and he has been carrying a curse for seventeen years and a silver blade is not going to finish what a curse could not.”

I put my hand on his chest.

The whole of the clearing was quiet.

And then the Alpha of the Alphas came into the circle.

“Alpha,” he said. “The field is clear and the wounded are in the pack house and the eleven Alphas are in the barn under guard and the whole of the Council has gone back to the ridge road.” He put his hand on the stone. “And there is a thing the Council has to do before it goes back to Boise.”

“What thing?” I said.

“The Council has to name the pack,” he said. “The Palouse Ridge pack is not the Palouse Ridge pack any more. The land is the Luna’s line and the founders’ line and the whole of the territory and the whole of it is a new thing. And a new thing needs a name and an Alpha and a deed.”

I looked at him.

“Then name it,” I said.

The Alpha of the Alphas stood in the circle.

“The Council of Alphas names this territory the Circle Pack,” he said. “It is named for the circle in the trees and the stones in the ground and the whole of the line that stood in it. And the Alpha of the Circle Pack is Wren Halloran and the keeper is Elias and the whole of the territory is the pack’s.”

The clearing roared.

And then the whole of the line came into the circle and the whole of the pack came in and the whole of it was in the moss and the green trees and the light of the stones.

Ruth of the Riverside pack came and put her hand on my shoulder. Ada of Boise came and put her hand on my other shoulder. Clara Renn came and put her hand on my head. Maeve came and put her hand on my back. June came and put her arms around me. Arthur Renn came and put his hand on my hand.

And the whole of the line stood around the stone with the keeper on it and the Alpha in the middle of them.

“Alpha,” Ruth said. “There is a thing we have to say to you. The whole of the line has been talking and the whole of it has decided.”

“What have you decided?” I said.

“The whole of the line is going to stay,” Ruth said. “Not the Riverside pack and not the Boise pack and not the Walla Walla pack. The whole of the line is going to come to the Circle Pack and the whole of it is going to be one pack.” She put her hand on my shoulder. “And the whole of it is going to be under the Alpha of the Circle Pack.”

I stood in the circle.

“You are going to leave your packs,” I said.

“We are going to leave our packs,” Ada of Boise said. “The Riverside pack is forty wolves and the Boise pack is thirty and the Walla Walla pack is ninety and the whole of it is one hundred and sixty and the whole of it is the line. And the line belongs in the circle.”

I sat down on the stone.

“Then the Circle Pack is four hundred wolves,” I said.

“The Circle Pack is four hundred wolves,” Ruth said. “And the whole of it is going to be in this territory by the end of the month.”

I looked at the whole of them.

“Then we are going to need a co-op,” I said. “And a mill. And a pack house that is not falling down.”

The whole of the circle laughed.

And then Elias opened his eyes.

“Wren,” he said.

I turned.

“I am here,” I said.

“I heard the whole of it,” he said. “I heard the naming and the line and the four hundred wolves.” He put his hand on my face. “You are the Alpha of the Circle Pack.”

“I am the Alpha of the Circle Pack.”

“And I am the keeper.”

“And you are the keeper.” I put my hand over his. “And there is a thing I have to tell you.”

“What thing?”

“The whole of the line is going to be in this territory by the end of the month and the whole of the line is going to need a pack house and a co-op and a mill.” I looked at him. “And the mill is ash and the co-op is ash and the pack house is falling down.”

Elias almost smiled.

“Then we are going to build,” he said.

And then June came into the circle with her face white.

“Wren,” she said. “There is a wolf at the edge of the trees. She is old and she has a cane and she says she is your grandmother and she has been waiting for eighty-eight years.”

I stood up.

“My grandmother,” I said.

“She says her name is Ilse,” June said. “And she says she is the Luna of the old pack and she has a thing to tell you about the curse.”

I looked at the trees.

There was an old woman standing at the edge of them with a cane and a shawl and she was not the keeper and she was not Ada of the north and she was not Ruth of the Riverside pack.

“Then let her come,” I said.

She came into the circle.

“Alpha,” she said. “I am Ilse and I am your grandmother and I have a thing to tell you that nobody has told you.” She put her hand on the stone. “The curse is broken and the land is the pack’s and the whole of it is finished. But the curse is not gone. It is in the ground and the ground is going to give it back.”

I stood in the circle.

“What?” I said.

“The ground is going to give it back,” Ilse said. “Every generation. The ground holds the curse and the ground is going to give it to the next keeper and the next and the next. And the whole of it is going to come back to your children.”

The circle was silent.

“Then it is not broken,” I said.

“It is broken,” Ilse said. “And it is not gone. It is the same thing.”