Chapter 91: The Stolen Pack

The light in the circle was still up and the trees were green and the pack was standing at the edge of it, and I could not move.

“Your mother,” I said.

“My mother,” Elias said. “Her name was Ruth. She was born in Walla Walla in 1893 and she was the Luna’s second daughter and she was taken east when she was a baby and she was raised by a family in Idaho and she never knew what she was.” He put his hand on my face. “She married a wolf and she had a son and the son was me. And when I was eleven she died and I went to live with my father’s pack and I did not know that my grandmother was the Luna and that my mother was the Luna’s daughter.”

I stood in the circle with the light on my face.

“Then you are the Luna’s line,” I said.

“I am the Luna’s line.”

“And the curse came to you because the curse goes to the founders’ line and you are the founders’ line through your father and the Luna’s line through your mother.”

“I am both,” Elias said. “I have been both since the day I was born and I did not know it.”

I put my hand on his chest and the mark on my shoulder went warm and the light in the circle came up through the ground and into both of us and it was one light.

“Two bloodlines,” I said. “One claim. No cure.”

“Two bloodlines and they are the same blood,” Elias said. “The founders’ line and the Luna’s line are the same line and they have been the same line since 1891. The founders married into the Luna’s family to keep the blood alive and they have been fighting the Luna’s blood for eighty-five years with paper and silver and a register in a vault.”

Clara Renn came and stood beside us.

“There is a thing in the record,” she said. “My mother copied it in 1954 and I have read it a hundred times and I did not understand it until tonight.” She took a folded paper out of her coat. “It is the page after the founders’ page. It is in the hand of the first Silas and it is the list of the eleven wolves who came with the founders and it has a column that nobody has ever looked at.” She unfolded it. “There is a column for the blood. Every wolf on the list has a letter beside his name. F for founders’ blood. L for Luna’s blood. And there are four wolves on that list who have both.”

She put the paper in my hand.

I read it.

The names were there. Erik Renn was F. Margaret was L and F both. Silas was F. And at the bottom there was a name I did not know with the letters L and F beside it and a note in the first Silas’s hand that said: married into the line in 1890. Knows what he is. Will not speak.

“Who is this?” I said.

“That is the first Silas’s brother,” Clara Renn said. “He married the Luna’s cousin in 1890 and he came with the founders and he was the only wolf on that list who knew both bloodlines and would not speak.” She looked at me. “And he is the one who kept the page. He kept it and he hid it and he put it in the box in the tack room and your brother found it.”

I folded the paper.

“Then the pack was stolen,” I said.

“The pack was stolen,” Clara Renn said. “The founders did not come to an empty territory. There was a pack here and a Luna and a circle and a boundary and the founders took it with a forged deed and a drowned woman and a register in a vault.” She put her hand on the stone. “And the pack is still here. It is standing in this circle and it has been standing in this circle for eighty-five years and it did not know it.”

I looked up at the trees and the light and the wolves at the edge of the clearing.

“Ada,” I said. “The founders’ page and the deed. The deed in the vault has the Luna’s name on it and the Luna’s parcel and the Luna’s boundary. The founders forged the signature and filed the deed and the Council has been using that deed to hold this land for eighty-five years.”

Ada came into the circle.

“Then the deed is void,” she said.

“The deed is void,” I said. “And the land belongs to the Luna’s line and the Luna’s line is standing in this circle.”

Ada looked at me for a long moment.

“And the pack?” she said.

I turned around and faced the wolves at the edge of the clearing.

“The pack is the territory,” I said. “The ground and the trees and the water and the wolves. The old pack was not a name on a deed. It was the wolves who lived here and worked here and buried their dead here. And this pack has been living here and working here and burying its dead here for eighty-five years.” I looked at them. “So the pack is not stolen. The pack is the same pack. It has been the same pack since before the founders and it is the same pack now. It has only forgotten what it was.”

The clearing was quiet.

And then Mrs. Pike came forward.

“Beta,” she said. “If the land belongs to the Luna’s line and the Luna’s line is you and Hannah and Arthur Renn and Elias, then what happens to the rest of us?”

I looked at her.

“The rest of you are the pack,” I said. “And the pack holds the land together.”

“That is a pretty thing to say,” Mrs. Pike said. “But it is not a deed.”

“No,” I said. “It is not. And I am not going to stand in this circle and give you a deed tonight. I am going to stand in it in two days and claim the territory in the old way and then I am going to write a deed that has every wolf in this territory on it and I am going to put it in front of the Alphas and I am going to ask them to sign it.”

The clearing was quiet.

And then Ada brought her stick down on the ground.

“The Alphas will sign it,” she said. “If the claim is made in the old way and the curse is broken and the land is returned, the Alphas will sign whatever deed the Beta puts in front of them.” She looked at me. “But there is a thing you should know before the new moon. The Alphas have read the founders’ page and the page says the curse can only be broken by a claim made in public at the full moon. Not the new moon. The full moon.”

The clearing went silent.

“The full moon was three days ago,” I said.

“The full moon was three days ago,” Ada said. “And the next full moon is twenty-seven days away.”

I sat down on the stone.

“Twenty-seven days,” I said.

“Twenty-seven days,” Ada said. “And the Council is in Boise and the chief clerk is in his office and the Councilman is in a cell and there is a company on the north road and the Alphas have a hearing to hold.” She put her hand on my shoulder. “You have twenty-seven days to hold this territory and to hold this pack and to keep the Council from taking it back before the full moon. And if you can do that, the curse is broken and the land is yours.”

I looked at the light and the green trees and the stones.

“Then we hold it,” I said.

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

“Wren,” she said. “A rider just came down the co-op road. He came from Boise and he has a letter for the Alphas and it has the Council seal on it.”

Ada took the letter and opened it and read it.

Her face did not change.

“The Council has called a meeting of the full Council of Alphas in Boise in three days,” she said. “And it says the meeting is to consider the removal of the Alphas who have sat on this tribunal.”