Who Killed Our Alpha?

he rocks were black and slick, and the wind carried t

ft and where the rusted oil drum marked the boundary line. I knew the exact flat stone whe

own here on a call from the night watch and found the Alpha face down in the shallow

ed something else underneath it, and I h

d remembering. He had simply stopped te

y come up. The smell came first. Wolfsbane, sharp and oily. Then the salt. Then, und

I had told myself for ten y

g to freeze y

ollar up and a canvas bag over her shoulder, and she st

does not start fo

use." She looked at the water, then

es

ag down. "I know he was past the boundary marker. I know he was out here when it

ay anythi

brushed my arm. "Then he said he wanted to go back to the mainland and live with our a

er pulled back from it and left a s

s said he was at the north marker, and the north marker is nine miles from this s

nd

k my hand out of the water and dried it on my coat. "But someone did, and whoever it

ame up off the bay and pushed her hair

re that nigh

one who f

wly, working it out. "You smelled the body before anyone else did. Bef

es

nly answer that mattered." She turned her head and look

t the stones. I di

now what a wolf looks like when he is carrying something he cannot p

not mat

ledger he will ask you the same question the pack asked ten years ago, and if yo

out at the bay and the grey line of the far shore

wolfsbane

id no

o

f say the rest of it. "An old scent. Fading. Like a coat

did not ask the obvious question. She waited

stranger," she

N

wolf from

at stone and the f

. I do not know who. I have been smelling the pack for ten years and I ha

was pale under her coat collar, a

match," she said.

, and then I followed her, and we walked back toward the canner

an was standing by the cannery door with his hands in his pocke

said. "Healer V

he tide lin

ed back and neat, and his sharp eyes went from my face to Nora's and back agai

. "I was checking the marker for storm damage a

ger than was polite. Then he smiled

been meaning to speak with the enforcer about the audit. There

in past him, and I felt his eyes o