I stared at him. The rain was falling steadily now, soaking through my tunic and plastering my hair against my neck, but I barely felt it. My mind was turning over his words, trying to find the shape of what he was telling me, and coming up short.
"How?" I asked. "Karik's claim is based on pack law. She's unclaimed. Unbonded. Unprotected. You said it yourself at the council, guest-right is thin. It barely held today, and it won't hold in fourteen days when he returns with twice as many wolves and the gathering council watching."
"Guest-right won't protect her," Rivik agreed. "You're right about that."
"Then what will?"
He held my gaze. The rain ran down his face in rivulets, catching in the short beard along his jaw, and in the failing light his eyes were more gold than grey. He looked exhausted.
"Karik cannot claim what is already claimed," he said.
The words landed, and for a moment I simply stood there, letting them settle. Already claimed. Already…
"A mated female," I said slowly, the understanding creeping in, "is protected under inter-pack law."
"Not just protected. Untouchable. You saw him today, Daska. As soon as he realised Megan was mated, even to that pathetic excuse for a wolf, Karik backed off. The same must apply to Ellie, and going back on his word would make him lose face. He won’t do that.”
I went very still.
The rain drummed against the rock beneath our feet, steady and relentless, and in the valley below, firelight flickered between the shelters like scattered stars. Rivik watched me with that sharp, focused expression and I nodded slowly.
"You want her mated," I said. "Before the full moon. Before Karik returns."
"Yes."
The simplicity of it made my chest tighten. So obvious, so elegant, and so utterly devastating that I couldn't believe I hadn't seen it coming.
"Then do it," I said. "Mate her. Claim her publicly, before the pack, before any witnesses Karik might send to watch. Make it binding and undeniable."
"I cannot. You know I cannot."
"Rivik." I took a step toward him, confusion and frustration tangling together in my chest. "You are the alpha. You are her fated mate. The Great Mother herself—"
“Nothing has changed in that regard, Daska. The Great Mother does not sit on the council of alphas." His voice was controlled again, but it shook. "The Great Mother does not negotiate trade agreements with neighbouring packs. The Great Mother does not have to stand before eighty wolves and explain why their alpha chose a human female over every wolf-born woman in the territory who would have been honoured to stand beside him."
He was right. I knew he was right. I'd heard the elders speak. I'd watched the way they looked at Ellie—some with curiosity, some with warmth, but others with the flat, calculating gaze of people measuring a threat to the natural order of things. An alpha's mate was not merely a companion. She was a symbol. A statement of strength, of bloodline, of the pack's future. A human mate would be seen as weakness, as madness, as an alpha who had lost his way.
And Karik would use it. By the Great Mother, he would use it like a blade, twisting it before every pack at the summer gathering until the other alphas had no choice but to question Rivik's fitness to lead.
“Then who?”
"You, Daska. You are the only one who can do this."
"Rivik—"
"Listen to me." He stepped closer, and laid his hand on my shoulder. "I have thought about this. I have thought about nothing else since Karik left this valley. I have turned it over and over until I cannot think straight, and there is no other way. She is your fated mated, Daska. Do you not want to mate her?"
“Of course I do, I have wanted nothing else since the day I met her… but not like this. Not because a monster is forcing our hand. Not because she has no other choice. That is not how I want to come to her, Rivik. That is not what she deserves."
"No. It isn't, but she’s a smart woman. She’ll understand.”
I stepped back and rubbed my hand over my face. “I don’t know if she will, brother. She’s been hurt before. She had a fated mate before and he rejected her.”
“What?” Rivik started at me in horror. “Who in their right mind would reject Ellie?”
I gave a bitter laugh. “Nathan.”
Rivik blinked. “You’re jesting with me.”
