They arrived at the Niemi pack lands about three hours before sunset. The moon, a waxing crescent, would rise about two hours after that; Ethan had already survived his first empty moon away from his pack.

They came bearing all sorts of containers of food—sweets, mostly, Ethan thought, some made that morning and some stockpiled over the last several days. Ethan helped carry the containers from the car to a sort of entry gate that had been set up—not at the edge of the pack lands, but at a wide flat place around the road leading to the Alpha’s seat of power, the Big House.

Doors stood open as people moved in and out of the Big House and the ordinary-sized houses nearest to it. Two large tents, sharp-edged square things as big as houses themselves, had been set up in the open space between the Big House and the other buildings. Enormous fires had been laid in several places, logs arranged in various shapes higher than Ethan’s head; obviously the night to come would not be as dark or as cold as a solstice was by nature.

“Here, hon,” a half-familiar voice said. It was Beau and Rory’s near neighbor, Jen, who lived down the street with her mate and children. She was holding out her hands to take the containers Ethan held. “I’ll put these with the rest of the desserts, you go on and vote.”

She tilted her head toward a table where several people clustered around, writing on slips of paper and depositing them in a large wooden box with a slot in the lid and a lock holding it shut.

“Vote?” Ethan looked around for help, and Casey stepped up to his side. Ethan got the feeling that Casey had intentionally not told him about this part; he handed off the food to Jen and focused on his packmate.

“Voting, for, uh,” Casey steered Ethan to the table. “For Solstice Alpha. It’s part of the party—we choose someone to be our alpha, instead of our real alpha, for the night. Just take a slip and a pen and write down a name. It can be anyone.”

Ethan narrowed his eyes. “Who is it usually? Who...”

“Oh, kids a lot of times,” Casey said, not meeting Ethan’s eyes. “Or an elder, especially if they were never chosen as a kid...”

Ethan grabbed a pen and one of the neat little rectangular slips of paper, as long as his longest finger and twice as wide. After a moment’s thought, he wrote down Rory’s name. He didn’t know the names of many children in the pack, and he wouldn’t like to choose one of Jen’s children over another. He folded his slip in half and dropped it into the box, stepping back to watch as Rory, Casey, and Adam cast their own votes.

He tried to imagine such a thing happening back in the Mactire’s pack, and couldn’t. Even in play, even for a celebration, the Mactire would never have allowed such a thing as the pack choosing another leader, or submitting himself to a child, or an omega.

Maybe it wasn’t supposed to be an omega, though. Casey hadn’t said that. Maybe when he said child and elder he meant alpha, of course, because who else could be an alpha? Well, if he’d been wrong to put down Rory’s name, hopefully it wouldn’t matter much.

But there was something Casey hadn’t told him about this voting business—something no one had told him—and Ethan couldn’t help feeling on edge, waiting to find out what it was he didn’t know.

Rory and Casey herded him in through the gate to where the celebration was taking shape, while Adam stayed behind talking to one of the midwives. Ethan was introduced to an endless parade of people, but Rory and Casey kept moving toward the Big House, and before long they had reached the steps up to its wide porch.

Alpha Niemi was standing there, on the ground in front of the lowest step, greeting people as they came and exchanging hugs and cheek kisses and scent-marks. He smiled when he caught sight of them—at Casey, first, but he looked to Rory and then Ethan as well, still smiling.

“Happy Solstice,” Casey said, stepping up and hugging the Alpha. The Alpha’s eyes went wide for a second and then closed, his arms curling lightly around Casey, obviously being careful not to hold on too tight.

“Happy Solstice, Case,” he murmured back—and then Casey stepped away, and the Alpha drew a hand quickly across his eyes. “That’s quite a...”

Casey grinned. “Don’t worry, you’re just getting socks for Christmas. And, hey, I also brought you an Ethan! This is Ethan.”

Ethan hadn’t met the Alpha yet, though he’d been living on the edges of the Niemi pack for days now. He was a big man—bigger than the Mactire—tall and broad-shouldered and well fed the way everyone around here seemed to be. There was some gray in his hair, a few lines on his face, but he radiated strength and steadiness.

Ethan hesitated, wondering if he was supposed to hug the Alpha like Casey had, or be scented, or...

The Alpha held out a hand, and Ethan, after a second of baffled hesitation, closed his own hand around it and shook like humans did.

“Good to meet you,” the Alpha said, nearly as warmly as he’d spoken to Casey. “I hear you’re going to be unseating me—”

Casey and Rory both made sharp flailing gestures and then stopped when the Alpha’s attention swung to them, and Ethan felt himself go cold as understanding fell into place. That was what they hadn’t told him.

“Casey,” the Alpha released Ethan’s hand to put his hands on his hips, his voice sounding suddenly actually stern. “Did you come up with this whole plan and not tell Ethan about it?”

Casey smiled, wide-eyed and unafraid despite the Alpha’s tone, and turned to Ethan. “You can say no! But, uh, I... may have... campaigned. A bit. With everyone. To get them to vote for you for Solstice Alpha. It’s your first Solstice, you should get a turn!”

There was something else under Casey’s words, something in the way he met Ethan’s eyes.

Casey had known him before he could claim his name—before he could even accept the idea of it. Casey had known the Mactire, and, however briefly, what it meant to live under his power. And even if it was only a game for children, Casey had argued for Ethan to be made Alpha for the Solstice, because he wanted Ethan to get a turn at it.

Ethan grabbed Casey’s hand and squeezed it hard as he turned to the Alpha again, putting his chin up. “You heard right,” Ethan said firmly. “I will unseat you.”

The Alpha studied Ethan for a few seconds, then smiled again, shaking his head. “You two sure you’re not brothers? That family resemblance comes through loud and clear.”

Ethan abruptly dropped Casey’s hand. He was not, even a little bit, Casey’s brother. Declan was Casey’s brother, and Ethan... was not Declan’s brother. At all.

“Third cousins at most,” Casey said cheerfully. “Adam’s got the DNA tests to prove it if you want to check.”