Chapter 89: The Pack Asks Why

We went down the co-op road in the dark with the lanterns and the rifles and the shovels and there were more than thirty of us. There were fifty. There were more than fifty.

The Council company was at the gap where the north fence met the co-op road.

They had two trucks and a canvas over the back of one and twelve men standing in the road with rifles and two men in the cab of the front truck. They were not in Council coats. They were in canvas jackets and work boots and they looked like men who had been in a truck for a long time.

The man in front was tall and he had a lantern in his hand and he came forward when he saw us.

“Beta,” he said. “I am looking for the Beta of the Palouse Ridge pack.”

“You have found her,” I said.

He stopped.

“Her,” he said.

“Her.”

He looked at me for a moment. Then he looked past me at the pack and the rifles and the shovels and he did not look happy about any of it.

“My name is Rourke,” he said. “I am the Council’s district officer for the north. I have a paper here that says the Council has placed this territory under administration and that the Beta and the Alpha are to be taken to Boise for questioning.” He held out the paper. “I am going to ask you to come with me quietly.”

I took the paper and read it.

It was a Council order. It was dated the twenty-sixth of September and it had a register number and a seal and a signature at the bottom and the signature was the chief clerk’s.

“This order is dated two days ago,” I said. “The Council wrote it before the tribunal and before the challenge and before the Alphas came. It says the Beta and the Alpha are to be taken for questioning. It does not say what the questioning is about.”

“It does not have to,” Rourke said.

“It does if you want me to come with you.” I handed the paper back. “I am not going to Boise tonight. I am going to stand in the circle at the new moon in two days and claim this territory in the old way. And the Alphas have already ruled that the claim will be heard.”

Rourke looked at me.

“The Alphas have ruled,” he said. “The Council has ruled too. The Council’s ruling is the one with the seal on it.”

“The Council’s seal is a stolen mark,” I said. “It is the founders’ mark with a line through it. The Alphas have the register and the crates and the photographs and the knife and they are on their way to Boise tonight with the whole of it.”

Rourke’s face did not change.

“Then I am going to have to take you anyway,” he said. “I have twelve men and a paper and I am not going back to Boise without the Beta.”

The pack behind me moved.

“You have twelve men,” I said. “I have fifty wolves and a pack square and a tribunal that has already ruled against your Council.” I stepped forward. “And I have a question for you, Mr. Rourke. Have you ever been in a circle of stones?”

He looked at me.

“What?”

“A circle of stones. The old kind. The kind the old pack built before the founders came.” I put my hand in my jacket and took out the key and held it up. “There is one in the trees at the north end of the east field. It has been there since before 1891 and the Council has been trying to find it for eighty-five years. And in two days I am going to stand in it at the new moon and claim this territory in the old way. And when I do, the founders’ bargain is void and every deed in that vault is a lie and the Council has no claim on this land and no claim on this pack.”

The men behind Rourke looked at each other.

“You are asking me to believe a story,” Rourke said.

“I am not asking you to believe anything,” I said. “I am telling you what is going to happen and I am telling you that the Alphas are on their way to Boise with the whole of the Council’s paper in a truck. And I am telling you that if you take me to Boise tonight, the pack will fight you and some of your men will die and some of mine will die and it will not stop the new moon. It will only make the Alphas angrier when they get to Boise.”

Rourke stood in the road with the lantern in his hand and did not say anything.

And then a wolf behind me said, “Beta.”

It was Mrs. Pike.

“Beta,” she said again. “Before this goes any further there is a thing this pack has been asking since the square and nobody has answered it. You have told us about the founders and the Luna and the stone and the curse. You have told us the Council has been lying for eighty-five years. But you have not told us why the founders did it. Why did they take the Luna? Why did they drown her? Why did they bury the stone and build a vault and keep a register and pay a man for eighty-eight years?”

The road was quiet.

“Because of the curse,” I said. “Because the old Alpha cursed them and the curse made a wolf in every generation and the founders could not hide it.”

“That is what the curse did,” Mrs. Pike said. “That is not why they took her.”

I stood in the co-op road with the lanterns and the pack and the Council company and I thought about the crates in the tunnel and the four hundred and six names and the fourteen photographs on the wall.

“They took her because of the land,” I said. “The old pack had the land and the founders wanted it. They could not buy it and they could not take it in a fight and so they took the Luna and they drowned her and they told the Council she had died of a fever. And when the old Alpha cursed them they built a vault and they kept a register and they paid a man for eighty-eight years to keep the paper in order. They did it because the land was worth more than a woman and they did it because nobody was ever going to ask them a question.”

“And the four hundred and six?” Mrs. Pike said. “The names in the crates?”

“The four hundred and six are the Lunas the Council took after the founders were dead,” I said. “They took the land from eleven packs with forged claims and they took the Lunas with it and they sold the land and they kept the money and they wrote it all down in a register and put it in a vault. And the founders started it and the Council has been doing it ever since because it worked.”

The road was silent.

“Then it is not a curse,” Mrs. Pike said. “It is a business.”

“It is a business,” I said. “And the curse is the thing that kept the receipt.”

Rourke had not moved.

“Beta,” he said. “I have been a district officer for six years and I have taken wolves to Boise on papers like this one and I have never once asked what was in the register.” He looked at the paper in his hand. “And I am not going to take you tonight.”

He folded the paper and put it in his coat.

“I am going to take my men back to the north road and I am going to sit in my truck and I am going to wait for the Alphas to come out of Boise with the whole of it. And if the Council sends another company after me I am going to tell them I could not find the gap in the dark.”

He turned and walked back to his truck.

The pack stood in the road and watched them go.

And then June came running up the co-op road with the lantern swinging and her face white.

“Wren,” she said. “The stones. Elias took the stones to the circle and he put them on the ground and the circle is lit up. The trees are green. The trees are green and it is the middle of the night and there is a light coming out of the ground.”

I turned and ran.