Murmurs rippled through the crowd. Some nodded in agreement, their expressions hostile. Others looked uncomfortable, their gazes darting between Howard and their Alpha. She resisted the urge to shrink behind Adrian’s bulk.
You’re his mate now. Act like it.
She straightened her spine and met Howard’s eyes directly. The Elder’s lip curled.
“This is why I called this emergency gathering,” Howard continued, his voice rising in passion. “To demand we reconsider the partnership with TalkToMe. To halt this reckless modernization that threatens to destroy everything we are. To remove the human influence from our pack. This is exactly what I’ve been warning you about, brothers and sisters. Our Alpha has abandoned his duties to chase after human tail. While we face threats on all sides—financial attacks, exposure risks, the slow erosion of everything we hold sacred—he’s been rutting in the city like a beast in heat.”
Several people in the crowd shifted uncomfortably.
“Watch your tongue, Howard.” Adrian’s voice hadn’t risen, but something in it made the torches flicker. “You’re speaking of my mate.”
The word landed like a thunderclap.
Silence. Complete and absolute.
“Your… mate?” Howard’s composure cracked, just for a moment. His eyes darted to her neck, to the scarf concealing Adrian’s mark. “Impossible. The council would have been informed of any mating ceremony?—”
“The bond is sealed.” Adrian reached over and gently tugged the scarf from her neck, revealing the fresh bite mark that proclaimed her his to anyone with eyes to see. “It requires no ceremony. No approval. No permission from you.”
The murmurs that broke out this time were louder. Harper caught snatches—”a human Luna?” and “unprecedented” and “the old ways forbid?—”
“This is precisely the corruption I warned you about!” Howard’s voice rose to a shout, desperate now. “He brings outsiders into our midst, shares our secrets with city creatures, and now he claims one as his mate? This is not the Alpha we need! This is not the leader our traditions demand!”
“And what do our traditions demand, Elder Howard?” Adrian prowled slowly towards the stage, menace in every step. “Since you seem so eager to lecture me on them.”
“They demand an Alpha who puts his pack above personal pleasure. An Alpha who respects the old ways. An Alpha who?—”
“They demand,” Adrian cut him off, “that any challenge to my authority be made formally. Through proper channels. By someone willing to back their words with action.” He stopped at the foot of the dais, close enough that Howard had to look down at him. “Is that what you’re doing, Elder? Are you challenging me?”
Howard’s face went pale, then flushed red.
“I’m speaking the will of the council?—”
“You’re speaking for yourself.” Adrian’s voice dropped lower, carrying the weight of his alpha command. “You’ve been speaking for yourself for months. Planning. Scheming. Using the very technology you claim to despise to undermine my leadership.”
The hall went deathly quiet.
Howard’s expression flickered—fear, quickly masked by indignation. “I don’t know what you’re implying?—”
“Harper.”
The single word was all the invitation she needed. Harper stepped forward, pulling her laptop from her bag with hands that barely trembled.
“My name is Harper Bailey,” she said, and her voice came out steadier than she felt. “I’m a cybersecurity specialist with TalkToMe, and I’ve been investigating the attacks on the Moonstone Pack’s financial systems.”
She opened her laptop, grateful for the projector setup that some forward-thinking pack member had installed. Within seconds, her screen was mirrored on the large display behind the council dais.
“Three weeks ago, someone attempted to breach the pack’s financial servers. The attack was sophisticated—multiple proxy layers, timing designed to coincide with council meetings, routing designed to obscure the source.” She pulled up the first diagram, colored lines tracing paths across a digital map. “I traced the attack through seventeen different servers across four continents. Whoever did this really didn’t want to be found.”
“And yet here we are, listening to a human lecture us on—” Howard began.
“I found them anyway.” She cut him off without looking at him. “The attacks originated from a satellite internet account. Specifically, an account registered to a cabin in the northwest sector of Moonstone territory.”
She pulled up the registration information.
“The cabin belongs to Elder Howard.”
Pandemonium.
