Mated to My Hunter

Chapter 40: The Rivals Arrive

Maren was off the cot and dressed before I had my shirt on. She had her coat buttoned and her hair tied back and her knife in her hand.

"How many?" she said.

"Five on the dock. Maybe more in the street."

"Who are they?"

"Not Council. Dark coats and swords and a scar on the chin." I looked through the gap again. "They have a paper. The man in front is holding a paper."

"The rival packs have sent for you," the man outside called. "We are not here to fight. We are here to talk. Send the warden out and we will talk on the dock."

Isla was awake with the manifest in her hand and Rhys was on his feet with his back against the wall.

"The loading door," I said. "There is a boat in the water and the boat is ours. Get the crate in the boat."

"It is a trap," Isla said.

"It is a trap and we are not going to walk into it." I looked at Maren. "The rival packs want the same evidence. If they get the crate they will take it to the Alphas themselves and claim the credit and the Northshore pack will be the pack that lost it."

"Then we do not let them have it." Maren looked at the loading door. "You said the storage hold belongs to a man who owes you a favor. Does it have a back door?"

"There is a hatch in the floor that opens on the old drain. It comes out on the street behind the fish market."

"Then we go out through the floor."

The hatch was under the crates. We moved the crates and lifted the hatch and the drain below was dark and wet and smelled of the market. Rhys went down first with the lamp and Isla went after him with the ledger under her coat. Maren took the crate and I took the rest of the papers and we went down.

The drain was low and the water was ankle deep and the walls were slimy. We went along it with our heads down and the lamp low and the voices on the dock faded behind us.

We came up in a cellar behind the fish market and went out through a coal chute into a yard full of barrels. The street beyond was grey and cold and the market was not open yet.

"Where do we go?" Isla said.

"The High Warden," Maren said. "He is in the capital and he has the prisoners and the chest. If we can reach him we can put the papers in his hands before the meeting."

"The High Warden will be in the Council hall and the Council hall will be full of wolves."

"Then we go to the Council hall."

We went through the fish market and up the hill toward the hall. The streets were narrow and the houses were stone and there were lamps at the corners and people in coats going to work.

At the top of the hill the Council hall stood with its tower and its iron gates and its steps. There were wolves on the steps and wolves at the gates and a line of coaches in the square.

And at the foot of the steps there was a man in a dark coat with a scar across his chin.

He saw us and he raised his hand.

"Warden," he said. "We have been waiting for you."

Maren stopped. Her knife was in her hand and her green eyes were steady.

"Who are you?" she said.

"My name is Halvard. I am an enforcer of the Greyfell pack. The Greyfell Alpha has sent me to find you and to bring you and your papers to him before the meeting."

"Why?"

"Because the Greyfell pack has been paying the Council's notes for thirty years and the Greyfell Alpha is tired of it." Halvard held out the paper. "This is a letter from the Greyfell Alpha. It says the Greyfell pack will stand with the Northshore pack in front of the Alphas if the warden will stand with us."

Maren took the letter and read it.

"The Greyfell Alpha wants the book of notes," she said.

"The Greyfell Alpha wants the Council's trade ended. The book of notes is the way to end it."

"The book of notes is in the storage hold. The storage hold is on the dock. Your men are on the dock."

Halvard's face did not change. "My men are on the dock because the Councilman Ostrander sent word that the warden was in the storage hold with a crate of stolen Council papers. My men were to take the crate and bring it to the Greyfell Alpha. They were not to harm the warden." He looked at her. "The Councilman is playing both sides. He has told the Greyfell pack that the Northshore pack is in rebellion and he has told the Alphas that the Greyfell pack is behind it. He wants the two packs to fight so that the Council can put them both down."

Maren looked at me.

"Ostrander has been playing both sides since the coffin," she said.

"Then we play both sides against him," I said. I looked at Halvard. "The crate is not in the storage hold. The crate is with us and the papers are with us and we are going to the Alphas. If the Greyfell pack wants to stand with us, stand with us. If the Greyfell pack wants the papers, the Greyfell pack can wait."

Halvard looked at me for a long moment. Then he put the letter away.

"The Greyfell Alpha will be in the hall at noon," he said. "He will stand with the warden if the warden stands with him. And he will bring twenty enforcers."

"Twenty enforcers will not be enough if Ostrander has the Council."

"Twenty enforcers and the Greyfell Alpha and the book of notes will be enough." Halvard stepped aside. "The hall is watched by the Council. There is a side door on the west wall with a guard who is a Greyfell wolf. Go in through the side door and wait in the undercroft. The Greyfell Alpha will find you there."

We went up the steps and around the west wall. The side door was where Halvard said it was and the guard was a grey wolf with a Greyfell mark on his collar. He opened the door and let us in.

The undercroft was dark and cold and full of old boxes and old papers. We sat down on the boxes and put the crate on the floor and waited.

Maren put her head back against the wall.

"The Greyfell pack," she said. "I did not expect the Greyfell pack."

"The Greyfell pack has been paying the Council's notes for thirty years," I said. "The Greyfell Alpha wants them cancelled. The book of notes cancels them."

"And if the Greyfell Alpha gets the book of notes he will use it to take the Council's trade for himself."

"Then we do not give him the book. We give it to the Alphas and the Alphas cancel the notes and the Greyfell pack gets what it wants without the book."

Maren looked at me. Then she smiled.

"You are learning," she said.

"I have had a good teacher."

The undercroft door opened and a wolf came in with a lantern. He was a big man with grey hair and a grey beard and a mark on his collar.

"The Greyfell Alpha," he said. "He is in the hall. He says the meeting has been moved up. It is not noon. It is now."

The hall of the Alphas was a great round room with a stone floor and a dome and a table in the middle in the shape of a ring. The Alphas sat at the ring and the pack speakers stood behind them and the galleries were full of wolves.

Ostrander stood at the table with his grey coat and his grey eyes and a paper in his hand.

"The Northshore pack is in rebellion," he said. "The Alpha is dying and the Beta has taken the pack and the warden has stolen Council papers and the ferryman has murdered a Council clerk. I have the warrants and the depositions and the witnesses."

The High Warden sat at the head of the ring with his white hair and his long face.

"The Councilman has spoken," he said. "The warden and the ferryman are in the hall. They have asked to speak."

Ostrander turned. His grey eyes found us at the door.

"The warden is a rogue," he said. "The ferryman is a murderer. They should be in irons."

The High Warden looked at us.

"Warden," he said. "You have the floor."

Maren walked into the ring. She had the crate in her arms and her copper hair was loose and her green eyes were steady.

"Alphas," she said. "I am Maren Voss. I am a silver warden of the Council and I am the daughter of Roderick Voss and the granddaughter of Elin Voss. I am also the last living heir of the founding Alpha of the Northshore pack."

The hall went quiet.

"And I have brought you the record of his murder," she said.