Chapter 176: The Reunion

The mill yard was quiet and the whole of it was white and the whole of it was snow and the whole of it was the ground.

I was on my knees in the middle of it with the whole of the line around me and the whole of the territories around me and the whole of the east on the ground.

And then Elias came.

He came across the yard with the snow on his shoulders and his shirt torn and a cut over his eye and he went down on his knees in front of me and put his hands on my face.

“Wren,” he said.

“Elias,” I said.

“The whole of it is a girl.”

“The whole of it is a girl.”

He put his forehead against mine.

“The whole of it is our girl,” he said.

“The whole of it is our girl,” I said.

And then June came and put the child in my arms.

She was small and she was red and she was wrapped in a blanket that had been Mary’s shawl and the whole of her was warm and the whole of her was asleep and the whole of her was the whole of the line.

I looked at her.

She had red hair like June and her eyes were amber like Elias and the whole of her was the whole of the line and the whole of her was the whole of the ground.

“The whole of it is the keeper,” I said.

“The whole of it is the keeper,” Elias said.

“And the whole of it is the door.”

“And the whole of it is the door.”

I sat in the snow with the child in my arms and the whole of the mill yard was around me.

And then I realized the whole of it.

The whole of me was not the whole of me that had stood in the combine yard in September. The whole of me was not the Gamma with a knife and a fence line and a brother. The whole of me was not the wolf who had run from the Council and hidden in a co-op and stood in a circle and lost a rank and lost a name and lost the whole of the land.

The whole of me was the Alpha of the Circle Pack and the Luna of the line and the mother of the keeper and the whole of the ground.

The whole of me had changed.

And the whole of it had changed with me.

The combine yard was still there. The calf was still there and the naked man in the snow was still there and the whole of the mill was burned and rebuilt and the whole of the co-op was burned and rebuilt. The whole of the territory was the whole of the territory.

But the whole of the it was not the same.

The whole of the territory had a door.

The whole of the territory had a line.

The whole of the territory had a keeper.

And the whole of the territory had a child.

I sat in the snow with the child in my arms and I cried.

It was not a loud cry and it was not a long cry. It was the whole of the cry I had been holding since the calf in the combine yard and the whole of it came out of me in the snow and the whole of the line let me cry.

Elias held me.

June held me.

Maeve held me.

The whole of the line held me.

And then the whole of the mill yard was quiet and the whole of the line went home.

We went back to the mill in the morning and the mill was not burned and the mill was not broken and the mill was the whole of the keeper’s house with the door that closed and the window that opened and the chair by the window and the rug on the floor and the crib in the corner.

And in the crib there was a child.

We named her Ilse.

She was named for the grandmother and she was named for the line and the whole of her was the whole of it.

And the whole of the pack came to the mill the next day and the whole of the line came and the whole of the territories came and the whole of the east came and the whole of them stood in the mill yard and the whole of them put a thing in the mill yard.

It was a stone.

It was a flat stone and it had a mark on it and the mark was the circle with two lines and under the mark there was a line that I had written myself.

It said: The whole of it is the line.

And under it, in Elias’s hand, there was a second line.

It said: The whole of it is the ground.

I stood in the mill yard with Ilse in my arms and Elias beside me and the whole of the line around me and the whole of the pack around me and the whole of the territories around me and the whole of the east around me.

And the whole of the mill yard was quiet.

And then Elias said, “Wren.”

“What?” I said.

“The whole of the it is not finished.”

I turned around.

“What?” I said.

“The whole of the it is not finished,” he said. “The whole of the east circle is open and the whole of the line is through it and the whole of the it is the ground. But the whole of the it is not the whole of the it.” He put his hand on the stone. “The whole of the it is the line and the whole of the line is the ground and the whole of the ground is the whole of the territories. And the whole of the territories is not the whole of the it.”

I stood in the mill yard.

“What is the whole of the it?” I said.

“The whole of the it is the other circles,” Elias said. “The whole of the east circle is open and the whole of the it is the door. But there is a circle in the north and a circle in the west and a circle in the south and a circle in the whole of the territories. And the whole of them are closed.”

I stood in the mill yard.

“The whole of them are closed,” I said.

“The whole of them are closed,” Elias said. “And the whole of them are going to be opened by the keeper.”

I looked at the child in my arms.

“By Ilse,” I said.

“By Ilse,” Elias said.

The whole of the mill yard was quiet.

And then a wolf came up the mill road.

It was the younger Corrigan boy and he had a wire in his hand and his face was white.

“Alpha,” he said. “The wire is from the Council. The Council has ruled that the whole of the territories is going to be opened and the whole of the circles are going to be opened and the whole of the it is going to be decided at the next full moon.”

I stood in the mill yard.

“Then the whole of the it is going to be decided in one night,” I said.

“The whole of the it is going to be decided in one night,” the boy said.

And then he said a thing that made the whole of the mill yard go dark.

“And Alpha,” he said. “There is a thing at the bottom of the wire. It says the whole of the it is going to be decided by the whole of the line and the whole of the it is going to be decided by the founder’s heir.”

I stood in the mill yard.

“My father,” I said.

“Your father,” the boy said. “And the whole of the founder’s heir is going to be at the next full moon and the whole of the it is going to be decided by the whole of the line.”

And then the whole of the mill yard went dark.

It was the ground. It came up out of the mill yard and out of the whole of the territory and the whole of the mill yard was white.

And then the ground spoke.

It said: The whole of the it is the line. The whole of the line is the ground. The whole of the ground is the territories. The whole of the it is going to be decided by the whole of the line.

And then it went out.

The mill yard was dark.

And then the light came back and there was a wolf standing in the middle of the mill yard.

It was Ilse the grandmother and she had a cane and a shawl and she was standing in the middle of the mill yard with her hands at her sides.

“The whole of the it is not the founder’s heir,” she said. “The whole of the it is the line. And the whole of the line is going to be decided by the keeper.”

I looked at the child in my arms.

“The whole of the it is Ilse,” I said.

“The whole of the it is Ilse,” Ilse said. “And the whole of the it is going to be decided by the whole of the line and the whole of the line is going to be decided by the whole of the it.”

I stood in the mill yard.

And then the whole of the mill yard roared.