Page 37
“That’s a lot of people,” Darian says quietly beside me.
“It is, our pack has grown in the last eight months from five hundred to Five thousand and forty seven wolves,” Alpha Rylan says. “And every single one of them will know who you are. Know your story. Know that you’re theirs.”
“When?” I ask.
“Full moon,” Luna Selena says. “Four days. That gives us time to get you settled, get the kids oriented, let the bond settle. The gathering happens at moonrise in the clearing behind the Pack House. Bonfire, food, the whole thing. It’s, it’s actually kind of beautiful.”
“Will there be music, candy, and dancing?” Darlene asks. She’s let go of my jeans. She’s standing on her own now, both hands clasped under her chin, and the suspicion has been replaced by something that looks dangerously like hope.
“There will absolutely be music, dancing and candy. We’ll also have a jumping castle, rides, game and more fun things,” Luna Selena says. “Live music. Guitars, drums, singing, sometimes a fiddle if Old Man Harlow’s feeling generous.”
“And food?” Damian presses.
“So much food, including cotton candy, popcorn, candy apples,” Alpha Rylan says. “You’ll think the kitchen exploded.”
“Will there be other pups?” Darlene’s voice has gone small again, but it’s not fear this time. It’s the particular smallness of a four year old who has spent her entire life in a camp where she had little to no friends her own age. The rogue camp believed in strength. It was survival of the strongest, but Darian was the strongest, so our pups never went hungry. The wolves who were too weak died and so did their pups. We tried to save as many as we could, but we couldn’t save everyone. And those we did save turned their backs on us in our last life.
Luna Selena crouches down. She’s at eye level with Darlene now, and the look on her face is so open, so completely unguarded, that something in my chest pulls tight.
“There are five hundred and three pups in Silver that range from newborns to seventeen. I’m sure you’ll meet new friends, and you are friends with the Luna.”
Darlene’s face does something I haven’t seen it do in years. It opens. Completely. Like a door swinging wide on hinges that have been rusted shut.
“Five hundred and three?” she breathes.
“Five hundred and three,” Luna Selena confirms. “And I know every single one of their names. Ask me. Go on. Test me.”
“Are there any four year olds?” Darlene asks, and her voice has gone so quiet it’s barely sound.
“Forty seven,” Luna Selena says without blinking. “Forty seven four year olds, and twenty four of them are girls, and twenty of those twenty four have stuffed wolves they sleep with, and twelve of those twenty four have named their wolves after the moon, and one of those three, her name is Piper, has a wolf named Moonbeam who is missing one eye because her brother tried to feed it to the dog.”
Darlene’s mouth falls open. “Moonbeam has one eye?”
“Moonbeam has one eye and a very brave attitude about it.”
“I want to meet Piper.”
“You’ll meet Piper. I’ll introduce you myself. She lives three streets over from your new house, and her mother makes the best lemon bars in the territory, and I’m saying that as someone who has eaten lemon bars in every pack from here to the coast. She also works in the hospital.”
Damian has abandoned all caution. The look on his face is the one he gets when he’s processing something so large his six year old brain needs a minute to find the edges of it.
“Five hundred pups,” he says.
“Five hundred and three,” Luna Selena corrects.
“How many are six?”
“One hundred and twelve.”
“How many are boys?”
“seventy nine.”
“How many...”
“Damian.” I put my hand on his shoulder. “You can ask her every question in the world on the way. We’re going on a tour, remember?”
“The tour!” Darlene launches herself off my leg and toward the door. “The tour the tour the tour...”
