chapter 65

The full moon has arrived. She brings death with her.

The ceremonial grounds are somber; the pack hasn’t seen an execution in centuries, let alone one of this scale. Every adult pack member is in attendance, gathered on stands erected around the open curve of the ceremonial building. Nathan struck down the condition that every member attend. He felt there was no reason for children to view the carnage of the proceedings.

The mates of the condemned are squeezed into a separate set of risers, a box constructed below the observation balcony. They have to watch. They need to see what their mates’ treachery has wrought. And they’ve been positioned where the rest of the pack can see their anguish. Where everyone will watch them watching their mates die.

I spared our parents. They won’t have to watch Clare die.

Nathan, Tara, and I are the only ones who look down from the mezzanine, though Tara’s chair is behind and slightly to the right of mine. It keeps her from viewing the grounds She does