Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 61 - Chapitre 70

Emily's POVWhat I had felt I did not say to anybody.Not Rollins, who had heard enough in that corridor to hold him dumb till breakfast and in the first patrol briefing and and the morning council where we had reviewed the updated positions of Claus's advance the morning council at which we had conferred the the new positions of the advance of Claus. Not Marcus who had indicated that the rest of it would wait until morning, and had then, as usual, put himself out of reach till after the midday meal. Not Liam, who had enough to bear without adding the fact that his Luna had in the first hours of the morning been feeling the extremities of every pack on the continent.I went back to it alone.The third hour after midnight. Rollins was asleep beside me, really asleep now, that deep sleep that followed days of prolonged watchfulness when the body chose to insist. I waited until his breathing settled into the long, even rhythm I was well enough acquainted with to rely on, and then I quiet

Emily's POVThessaly was her name.Not the Alpha. The Alpha had sent her because Sera of the Fenrath had assured her of Ironclaw, and the Alpha of this pack, a woman named Voss who ran a tight border territory two days east of the Fenrath, had faith enough in her word to send her second rather than coming herself. Practical. Careful. The kind of leader who did not walk into unfamiliar keeps without information she trusted.I respected that before Thessaly had said a word.She must have been thirty, and was a little woman, with that economy of movement that belonged to decades of life upon the border territory-not a thing thrown away, not a thing done. She sat the other side across the war room table than Rollins and kept her hands in sight and straightened her spine and looked up at him as experienced wolves looked at Alphas they were examining instead of submissively.Rollins received that with the particular stillness he used when he was deciding whether something was a challenge or

Rollins's POVIt took one-half a day to ride to the midpoint.Marcus on my left. Eight Ironclaw warriors spread in a loose formation behind us. It was Emily who was riding beside me, and with that specific straitness with which she sat when she was harboring something that was very still there, when it was not tense, but a calm deep intent before encountering what came to the face and waiting just to see it come.The midpoint was a waystation three territories east - a stone building maintained by no pack in particular, which was occupied by all the packs, the neutral territory which was necessitated by the necessity of every one. Voss had made a good decision. The place told her that she was not to be aggressive, but there in the spot she said she was very serious.We came to find her there.Smaller than I thought. Small, grey-haired, and with the easy, listless calm of a woman who had been guarding a border district half a century, and had long since ceased to be impressed by that w

Emily's POVWhen we rode in, Leon was already at the gates.Not two days out. Already here. He had pushed the pace - hard, by the look of his warriors, who were road-worn and travel-stained and with that peculiar fatigue of wolves who had been on the move without sufficient rest. Shadowcrest's colors on their cloaks. Forty or more wolves in loose group in the outer court, and their horses were being attended to by the stable hands of Ironclaw, the entire effect suggesting that controlled anarchy of an arrival which no one had quite expected.Rollins saw it before I did. I felt it in the bond - that specific tightening; it was not anger, but something more complex. The re-calibration of a man who had been anticipating news and had received the thing itself.He said nothing. He rode through the gate, and dismounted and walked straight to where Leon was waiting in the middle of the courtyard.Leon was, maybe, thirty-five, broad-shouldered, and with that slow, patient air of a Beta who ha

The day went by in bits.Training yard drills in the morning. Reviewed and adjusted patrol rotations. Warriors from four territories who had passed the keep with the one-mindedness of those who had received the news, and who no longer pretended to ignorance. Liam organizing the watch shifts. Marcus and Leon discuss how to incorporate the forest strategies of Shadowcrest into the western flank defense. Just after dawn Voss arrived with his warriors, forty in number, road-weary and armed.I passed it all without really being in any of it.The First Power was still turned inward, still oriented toward the mate bond with that patient, watchful attention. Not interfering. Not extending. There, rooted to the thing it had come to know was true, and using it the way Marcus had described - as a foundation rather than a target.By midday the consolidated force numbered over two hundred.More than Ironclaw had ever had. The keep was more than designed to be comfortably accommodating. but they ad