The stone clearing looks different without torchlight. Smaller. The ritual stones are just stones again, worn pale from decades of weather, and the dark stain where Gideon fell has been washed and scrubbed back to almost nothing.
Gideon's body is gone—I don't ask where. Some things the pack handles in its own way, and I've learned to read the line between what's mine to know and what isn't.
Alden stands at a great stone pillar in the middle of the circle. His injuries pronounced in how stiff and subtle in his movements, but he's standing on his own and his expression is composed enough that only someone who knows the tells would catch the cost of that.
I know the tells now.
The council assembles around us, Brynn at the head, Marek and Lydia flanking her, the younger members in the outer positions. Ciaran stands to one side with Kieran restrained in front of him, wrists bound, posture resigned. Kieran looks worsein daylight, bruised from the tackle, still soft and woozy from the partial sedative.
Brynn opens without preamble. "The Luna vote."
One of the elder wolves—Ronan, silver-haired and deeply skeptical of anything that postdates his elevation—steps forward before anyone else can speak. "The Alpha's mate status should be reviewed before any vote proceeds," he says. "Last night's civil fracture was precipitated by this woman's presence in the pack. The challenge, the division, the deaths—none of it existed before she arrived."
"Rogue attacks were happening before I arrived," I say.
Ronan looks at me down his nose. "Your involvement escalated the crisis."
"Or I was in the wrong place at the wrong time," I say.
"Ronan." Alden's voice is level. "State your position formally."
Ronan straightens. "We move to have the Alpha's mate status formally dissolved. The mark should be rejected, the bond severed, and Dr. Ellis removed from pack territory." He looks around the council arc. "It is the cleanest solution to a problem that has cost us significantly."
The word ‘rejected’ hits my chest with an unpleasant weight. I don't fully understand the mechanics of what rejecting a mate bond means, but the room's reaction tells me it's significant, and the look Alden gives Ronan is the coldest I've seen from him.
"There is no pack law that prevents an Alpha from taking a human mate," Alden says. "Brynn confirmed this in council weeks ago. Ronan, if you have a legal argument, make it. If you're asking me to reject my mate because it would be convenient for the pack's optics, this conversation is finished."
"Your mate's presence divided this pack," Lydia says, quieter than Ronan but no less pointed. "That's not about optics. That's about consequence."
"Gideon divided this pack," Alden says. "Using my mate as the stated justification. Those are not the same thing."
Marek clears his throat. "The question of whether Dr. Ellis should hold the Luna title formally is separate from whether the mate bond stands. One is law, one is ceremony. We don't need to resolve both at the same time."
"Agreed," Brynn says. Her eyes hold wisdom when they meet mine, but they aren’t kind. They aren’t cruel, either. "Dr. Ellis. You've been present for this council's deliberations more than is typical for a mate in dispute. Do you have something to add?"
I look at the council arc, at Ronan's folded arms and Lydia's guarded expression and the younger members who haven't spoken yet and are watching to see which way the room settles. Then I step forward so everyone can see me.
"There's a more pressing issue than my status," I say. "Gideon didn't build this alone. The burner phone Ciaran recovered links him to an organized syndicate in Wyoming. Whatever arrangement he made with them, it existed on their end before it existed on his, and they don't walk away from a land target because their inside contact died." I pause. "Kieran is the only living person in this pack with direct knowledge of his father's outside dealings. If you execute him, you lose the only testimony that could help you understand the full scope of what was set in motion."
The council is quiet for a moment.
Brynn turns to Kieran. "Your father worked with outside entities. How long?"
Kieran shifts his weight, the restraints pulling at his wrists. "As long as I can remember, he had contacts outside the pack. Suppliers, informants, people who gave him information about neighboring territories." He pauses. "He worked with groups like the hunters before. Different groups, different states. He had a whole network of people."
"And the Wyoming group specifically?" Brynn presses.
"I don't know who they are," he says. "He never told me names. He told me what he needed me to do and why it served the pack." His jaw tightens. "I didn't ask questions.”
"But you confirm the pattern," Brynn says. "Outside coordination. Deliberate."
"Yes."
Brynn looks at the council. "Dr. Ellis is correct. The external threat did not dissolve with Gideon. We are still exposed." She turns back to the arc. "We’ll defer Kieran’s execution until we know all there is to know.”
Ronan's expression doesn't soften, but he doesn't press.
Marek brings the conversation back to Kieran. "Treason within the pack carries a death sentence under Blackmoore law. That law exists for reasons that don't become less valid because the traitor has useful information."
