This topic had dragged on for two hours. Same content, just recycled with different wording.
"Silver Moon Pack cannot be without an heir." Morris, seated beside him, jumped in. Shrewd calculation glinted in his rheumy eyes. "This concerns the stability of the entire pack."
"Miss Victoria's family has been loyal to the pack for years." His tone made it sound like established fact. "And she herself is gentle and virtuous. Most importantly, this was the old Alpha's—"
"Dying wish." I finished the sentence first, exhaustion washing over me. "I know."
I knew what had me trapped. I knew what I was afraid of. I knew what I should do—as Alpha of Silver Moon Pack, as my father's son.
Should. But I didn't want to. Not now.
The air in the meeting room froze for several seconds.
Drake coughed and set down his cup. "Since you're aware of the old Alpha's wishes..."
"My father." The words came slowly as I studied these sanctimonious old bastards. "In the last years of his life, he had nightmares every single night. He'd wake up drenched in sweat, screaming my mother's name. Did you know that?"
Silence.
"He'd kneel at Mother's grave for hours. Winter, summer—didn't matter." I continued, scrutinizing each calculating face. "He'd say 'I'm sorry.' Say 'I didn't mean to.' Say 'fate played me for a fool.' But Mother couldn't hear him anymore."
Drake shifted uncomfortably. "I don't understand what you're—"
"I mean—picking just any Luna is pointless." A laugh escaped me, cold as winter. "I'll make my own decision. We're done here."
"But according to tradition, to inherit as Alpha, you must also inherit—" Morris tried again.
"I said we're done!"
Alpha command crashed through the room like a tidal wave. The elders' faces went white. Chair legs scraped against the floor in a discordant chorus as they practically fled.
Only Victoria remained by the door.
She wore a beige suit today, hair pulled back without a strand out of place, makeup perfect as if she were heading to some important event. But her eyes were red and swollen, tear tracks still visible at the corners.
"Kayden." Her voice came out soft, laced with wounded fragility. "Are you really going to treat me this way?"
I didn't answer. Just walked to the floor-to-ceiling window and turned my back on her.
Outside lay Silver Moon Forest, its dark green canopy swaying in the wind like ocean waves. They said when Mother was alive, she loved walking through those trees. This was where Father had proposed to her.
"I started learning how to be a Luna when I was five." Victoria moved closer, her voice carrying an unsettling obsession. "Learning etiquette, management, how to deal with the elders, how to keep smiling in public..."
My fingers tightened on the window frame.
"I studied for twenty-seven years, Kayden. Twenty-seven years."
"That was your choice. Not mine." I turned to face her.
Victoria was undeniably beautiful in the traditional sense. But those eyes... the same color as my mother's. I looked at her and saw no love there. None of the light that filled Layla's eyes when she looked at me. Just bitter resentment over a promise, a position.
There would never be another Layla.
"Why?" Her face went pale, body swaying. "Is it because of that woman? Ella Ross? What's so special about her?!"
I didn't answer. My silence was answer enough.
"What can she give you?" Victoria's tears fell like broken pearls. "What can she give the pack? She's an outsider! Some designer with no background!"
