Chapter 144: The Vow

I read the paper twice and then I put it down on the stone and put my hand over my mouth.

“Ruth,” I said. “My mother’s sister.”

“Your mother’s sister,” the Alpha of the Alphas said. “She was taken to the room in 1954 and she has been in it for twenty-five years. She was the one who went to the Council in 1954 and told them the Luna was alive and the Council put her in the room with the rest of them.”

I sat down on the stone.

“She has been in a room for twenty-five years,” I said. “And I have been in this territory for twenty-six and I did not know she existed.”

Elias put his hand on my back.

“Wren,” he said.

“I have a whole family in a room in Boise,” I said. “Eleven cursed wolves and my mother’s sister and the whole of them have been in a room for twenty-five years and nobody in this territory has said a word.”

The Alpha of the Alphas stood in the circle.

“The Council did not know,” he said. “The Council has been told that the room was a hospital and the wolves in it were sick. The room has been on the Council’s books since 1902 and it has been signed for every year and the whole of it has been kept by a keeper who has been the keeper for forty years.” He put his hand on the stone. “And the keeper is a wolf named Erik and he has been in the room since 1902.”

I looked up.

“Erik Renn,” I said.

“Erik Renn,” the Alpha of the Alphas said. “The Council has him in a cell in Boise and he has been talking since Tuesday and he has told the whole of it. The room and the wolves and the whole of it. And he has told the Council where the twelfth one came from.”

I stood up.

“Then we go to Boise,” I said.

“You cannot go to Boise,” the Alpha of the Alphas said. “The Council hearing is in a month and the whole of the territory is in a state and the eleven Alphas are in a barn and the whole of it is on your shoulders.” He put his hand out. “The Council will go to Boise. The Council will open the room and bring the twelve out and bring them here.”

“And if the Council does not?” I said.

“The Council will,” the Alpha of the Alphas said. “I am the Alpha of the Alphas and I am going to Boise tonight and I am going to open that room myself and I am going to bring your aunt out of it.”

I looked at him for a long moment.

“Then go,” I said. “And bring her here. And bring the whole of them here. And if the Council stands in your way you tell them that the Alpha of the Circle Pack is going to come to Boise and open the room herself.”

He went.

The circle was quiet and the whole of the pack had gone to their houses and the whole of the line had gone to the pack house and the whole of the clearing was empty except for Elias and me and the two stones.

I sat down on the flat stone.

Elias sat down beside me.

“Wren,” he said.

“I have a whole family in a room in Boise,” I said. “And I have a child coming and June has twins coming and the curse is going to come back to the line in the spring and the whole of it is going to come to one of June’s children or to mine.”

He put his hand on my face.

“And there is a thing I have been thinking since the full moon,” he said. “And I am going to say it now because I do not know if I will have the nerve tomorrow.”

“Say it.”

“I am the keeper,” he said. “And the keeper takes what the ground gives and holds it. And the Luna holds it with him. And the whole of it is a choice the line makes.” He put his hand on my stomach. “And I am not going to let the choice come to our child.”

I looked at him.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that the whole of it ends with us,” Elias said. “Not the curse. The curse goes on and the ground gives it back and the keeper takes it. But the choice comes to us and not to them. We make the choice now and we make it once and we make it for the whole of the line.” He put his hand on my face. “We vow it. In the circle. In front of the stones. That the keeper and the Luna are going to hold the curse together for as long as they live and that the whole of it is not going to go into the pack and it is not going to go into the children.”

I sat on the stone.

“And when we die?” I said.

“Then the next keeper takes it and the next Luna holds it with him.” He put his forehead against mine. “And the whole of it goes on. But it does not go on in the dark. It does not go on in a room and it does not go on in the trees and it does not go on behind a lie. The whole of the line is going to know what they are and the whole of the line is going to choose.”

I put my hand over his.

“Then I vow it,” I said. “In this circle. In front of the stones. The keeper and the Luna hold the curse together and the whole of it does not go into the pack.”

“And the whole of it does not go into the children,” Elias said.

“And the whole of it does not go into the children.”

The two stones lit up.

It came up out of the ground and out of the stones and out of the trees and it went into both of us and the whole of the clearing was white and the whole of the east field was white.

And then it went out.

The circle was dark.

And then a voice came out of the trees.

It was old and it was tired and it was the keeper and she was standing at the edge of the clearing with a lantern in her hand.

“The vow is made,” Ada of the north said. “And the whole of it is in the ground and the whole of it is in the stones and the whole of it is going to hold.” She put the lantern down. “And there is a thing about the vow that the two of you have not said. The vow is a bargain and a bargain made in the circle is a bargain the ground hears. And the ground is going to hold you to it.”

I stood up.

“What does that mean?” I said.

“It means that if either of you breaks the vow, the ground takes the whole of it back,” Ada of the north said. “Not a piece. The whole of it. And it takes it from the one who broke it.”

The circle was silent.

Elias stood up.

“Then we do not break it,” he said.

Ada of the north looked at him.

“No,” she said. “You do not.”

And then June came into the circle with a wire in her hand.

“Wren,” she said. “The wire is from Boise. The Alpha of the Alphas is at the room and he has opened it and he has brought the twelve out.” She held up the wire. “And Wren. There is a thing at the bottom of the wire. It says the twelfth one is not Ruth. It says the twelfth one is a wolf who has been in the room since 1954 and the wolf is not a Halloran. The wolf is a Kessler.”

I took the wire.

“A Kessler,” I said.

“A Kessler,” June said. “And Wren. It says the wolf is Ada Kessler’s daughter.”