She looked at Solomon. “All right. What about Dax’s body? Do we need to have a funeral? Should we call his people? What happens?” Sadness moved through her again, quieter than panic but heavier, settling into her ribs. He had seemed decent. He had been standing there one moment, part of a twisted competition, and then he had been reduced to an animal on the ground.
“I’m sure the doctor will handle all of that.” Solomon’s voice softened. “She’ll most likely put the body on ice until his people decide what to do with it. I don’t know if they’ll want a funeral here in our territory or somewhere else.” He paused. “I’m sure they’ll burn the body.”
Nadia swallowed and nodded once, because she didn’t trust herself to speak without her voice cracking. The marble counter bit cold into her fingertips as she gripped it. “So, we’re all locked in because we agreed. Even if I decided to take off now, to go back to farming in a different pack, what would happen?”
Solomon shook his head. “They’d come get you, and the entire pack would be forced to turn against you.”
She cocked her head, studying him, trying to find a crack of doubt. “Do you think the entire pack would actually follow their stupid rules?”
“Yes,” Bussy said immediately. She lifted a hand, palm out. “We wouldn’t want to. But if we don’t follow these rules, the pack will perish. There’s more at stake here than a silly book and tradition. The winds themselves are involved.”
Nadia’s mouth went dry. “What do you mean the winds themselves?”
“Didn't you feel the earth move when all five of the males accepted the challenge?” Margaret asked.
Nadia gulped, and the sound was loud in her own ears. “I felt the earth moving the entire last week while we dealt with this.” She had noticed it, a low vibration under her feet, something that rattled windows and set her nerves on edge. She had told herself it was weather, another storm rolling in, another excuse not to think too hard. She wrapped her arms around herself now, suddenly chilled despite the warmth of the house. “Yeah,” she added quietly. “I felt something. I just thought it was a storm.” Wolves felt the tides, the shifting of the planet, even the air.
“This is real.” Bussy reached for her hand. “I know you don’t understand it, but our laws mean a lot, even when they haven’t been updated. Without them, we’d just be wild animals.”
Nadia’s gaze slid toward the grimoire resting on the counter. The heavy book seemed out of place among the clean lines and polished surfaces of the kitchen, old and solid and faintly imposing. The leather cover looked darker than it had before, as if the room’s light bent toward it.
“The laws can be changed,” Bussy said, “but they have to be changed rightfully. Philip was arrogant in assuming his lineage would always carry on.”
“It did carry on,” Solomon muttered. “But Emily chose to mate with an Alpha from a different pack, and Nadia doesn’t know how to fight.”
Nadia’s chest tightened. “Maybe I should’ve sought my father out years ago,” she said. “But I was happy. My mother was happy. This isn’t our fault. Philip should’ve absolutely changed those laws.”
Solomon shot her a look. “Give him a break. He didn’t know he had another daughter and figured he’d have other children to protect the pack, but it just didn’t happen. On all of the gods, why didn’t he have more progeny?”
“It’s too late to worry about additional heirs.” Margaret shrugged out of her thick wool coat and folded it over a chair. “Nadia, you’re not built to fight. No offense meant.” She tilted her head, assessing. “We have smaller fighters, sure, but you’d be challenged constantly for the position. If you were the Alpha, anyone coming for the title wouldn’t have a choice. They’d have to kill you to take it.”
Nadia inhaled slowly as the weight of the laws pressed down hard. So now that the trials had started and a wolf had died, they were all locked in until the end. She cleared her throat. “How do we know if the other wolves are okay?”
“We know Luca is just fine,” Solomon said sharply. He rubbed his chin, his eyes narrowing. “I find it interesting that he didn’t drink any of the tea.”
“Maybe,” Nadia said. “But he did say he doesn’t like tea.” She made a vague gesture. “None of them seemed thrilled. They all want to go fight dragons or whatever.”
Margaret lifted a brow. “Fight dragons? You do have quite the imagination, don’t you?”
“I guess,” Nadia said, then hesitated. “Are we sure there aren’t dragons out there?” Her thoughts tangled, sliding toward panic again. “Are all the challengers okay? Or are they out there freezing, convulsing, and dying? What if they all die?”
Solomon rubbed his chin again, slower this time. “If the other three die from the poison, then I guess Luca’s Alpha.”
“He seemed nice,” Margaret said. “Didn’t he?”
“I don’t know,” Nadia said. “I just met him once. I didn’t like how he attacked Isaac when he went down from the poison.”
Solomon lifted a hand. “That’s the job. They’re supposed to take people out.”
“Caidrik saved Isaac,” Nadia said, her heart warming. Just a little. She couldn’t forget how he’d declared she’d be his, as if he agreed with those ancient laws.
Bussy’s eyes gleamed. “Now that’s an Alpha.”
Nadia’s stomach turned. “If he’s not dead in the woods right now.”
“Well,” Margaret said, practical as ever, “he could be.”
Nadia shook her head. “No. He can’t be.” She took a breath, forcing herself to focus. “All right. What do we do now?”
