CALLUM’S POV
I was in the sitting room going through correspondence when Dane walked in.
The look on his face was one where he wanted to say sothing but wasn’t sure where to start.
He opened his mouth and I put down my papers.
"Before you say whatever that is." I said. "Are you making it obvious?"
He looked at . "Making what obvious?"
"That you’re following her around." I raised a brow. "Every corridor she walks down. Every errand she runs. Are you being subtle about it?"
Dane sighed. "I’m being careful." He said.
"That’s not what I asked."
He said nothing. I looked at him for a mont and thought about Riven’s eyes tracking her across the conference room.
That little bastard.
"Be subtle." I warned
"She told to stop." He dropped the news.
I looked at him. "What?"
"This afternoon." He said. "She told everything was making her uncomfortable and to stop following her." He sat down across from and leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. "So I stopped."
I looked at the wall for a mont.
"And Riven?" I said.
"Still finding reasons to be wherever she is." He said flatly. "I counted three tis today before she told to back off."
"She told you to back off?" I pinched my nose bridge.
"Yes."
"Not him?"
"No." He said. "She handled him herself."
I was quiet for a mont as I thought about that.
"She’s not wrong." I said finally.
Dane looked at .
"She doesn’t need us trailing her." I admitted. "She needs Riven to go back to Coldridge." I picked the papers back up. "How many more days."
"Five." He said. "If the proposals get concluded on schedule."
"Make sure they do." I ordered.
He nodded but didn’t move.
I looked at him over the papers. "Was there sothing else?"
He shifted slightly. "The elders." He said. "They’re assembled in the hall. All of them." He paused. "I didn’t call them there and neither did you."
I lowered the papers slowly.
The elders were assembled. Why?
"How many?" I said.
"All of them." He said. "Osric included. They looked—" He paused like he was choosing the word carefully. "Serious."
I looked at him for a mont.
What?
I hadn’t called a eting. The next scheduled council session wasn’t for another week. An unscheduled assembly of the full elder council in the hall ant soone had organised it without going through and there was only one elder in this pack with both the nerve and the long standing authority to do sothing like that.
Osric.
That man was beginning to get bolder. Seems like he had started playing his cards. What would they lead to? Did he want to rule this pack in my stead? Was that the whole point of all this that he was doing?
"Tell them I’ll be there." I replied.
Dane nodded and stood.
"Dane." He stopped. "Whatever this is—" I looked at him. "Don’t react to it in front of them. Whatever they say."
He held my gaze for a second. Then he nodded and left.
I sat there for a mont.
What could they possibly want? And what had Osric told them?
Probably so bullshit again. Still, because I didn’t want to take chances when it ca to Osric, I was going to attend the eting.
As much as I hated him, thinking he couldn’t do anything was extrely foolish. Because I knew he would. I just didn’t know what.
I put the papers down and stood and went to find out what it was.
The hall was fully lit when I arrived. Every elder present, seated around the council table and Dane had been right — the look on their faces was not the look of people who had gathered casually.
Osric stood when I walked in.
"Alpha Callum." He bowed. "Thank you for coming."
I sat at the head of the table and looked at him. "I wasn’t aware we had a eting scheduled." I said.
"We didn’t." He said pleasantly. "We called one."
I looked around the table. Every face looking back at . So uncomfortable. So resolute. All of them here, which ant this had been organised with enough advance notice for everyone to clear their evenings.
"Then let’s hear it." I said.
Osric settled back into his chair with the composure of a man who had been waiting for this particular conversation for a long ti. "You’ll recall." He said. "The Duskfen alliance. Eight years ago. They wanted a formal bond between packs and we couldn’t secure it." He folded his hands on the table. "Because you didn’t have a Luna."
I said nothing, my jaw tightening slightly.
"You were newly widowed." He continued. "And we understood. We were patient. We gave you ti." He paused. "It has been eight years, Alpha Callum."
I looked at him blankly.
Oh?
I already knew where this was going. I had known from the mont Dane described the look on their faces. But I let Osric talk because stopping him now would only make it worse.
"You are an Alpha." He said. "This pack needs stability. It needs legacy. It needs—" He looked at directly. "A Luna. It is ti.".
A Luna? The idea stuck in my head for a long minute and I thought about it. They weren’t wrong. I was limiting myself to a lot of things because of my lack of a luna. It wasn’t exactly because of my dead wife. Not that. I just never found anyone who could get to that way again.
Not until Keisha. And I couldn’t tell them about it. It was a tabboo. My beta and I mated to the sa woman? Goddess knows what troubles I would be causing if I admitted that.
I let the room remain silent and then, I stood.
Not tonight.
"eting adjourned." I called out.
Nobody moved.
I looked around the table.
Not a single elder moved from their chair.
You have to be kidding .
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