"That's effective for immediate threats," I say. "Kieran isn't an immediate threat." I look around the table. "A formal trial gives you a record. Every pack member who watches it sees what due process looks like from this council. That precedent is worth more in the long run than a fast resolution."
"She's right about the record," Reid says.
Marek taps his fingers once on the table. "Procedure."
"I can draft it," I say. "A working framework, incorporating pack law on testimony and judgment, with a defined role for the council." I look at Brynn. "If you're willing to review the draft against existing law."
"Bring me a draft," Brynn says, which is about as close to enthusiastic as Brynn gets about anything.
By the second afternoon I have a twelve-page framework that Brynn reviews in two hours and returns with annotations, none of which dismantle the structure. Kieran's formal trial date is set for three weeks out, enough time for the external investigation to advance and for the pack to stabilize before it adds another public event to the calendar.
The wildlife research station proposal goes worse, initially.
"A human research presence on Blackmoore land?" Lydia asks, when I put it forward on the third morning. "You're suggesting we invite the exact kind of external scrutiny we've spent generations avoiding."
"I'm suggesting we create a documented scientific record that actively works against that scrutiny," I say. "If there's a functioning wildlife research station on the neutral border with published data, catalogued surveys, a legitimate institutional presence, then any claims about unusual animal activity in this area get filtered through that record first." I set the map on the table. "Documented science says: standard apex predator distribution, within known behavioral parameters, no anomalous findings. That's the wall between this pack and every hunter with a camera and a theory."
"The researchers would see pack members in wolf form," Marek says.
"Not if the station's study areas are clearly defined and pack members stay clear of them during active research windows," I say.
The council is quiet for a moment.
"It creates a paper trail that supports our cover," Ciaran says from the end of the table. "If hunters or outside organizations come looking for evidence of anomalous wildlife, the research station's published findings become the counter-argument they have to defeat before they can gain any credibility."
"Exactly," I say.
"I'd volunteer as the pack's contact with the station," Ciaran continues. "I can direct their research focus toward the established study corridors, introduce them to Dr. Ellis's existing data as the baseline work, and manage the relationship to keep their attention where we want it."
I look at Ciaran. He looks back at me with the flat, steady expression he frequently uses, and I nod.
"That would work," I say.
Alden hasn't spoken through most of this session, which I've come to understand is deliberate—he gives me the floor and holds the room's attention by not filling it, so that what I say lands with his implicit endorsement without him having to attach it verbally.
But when the research station proposal gets its first nods of tentative agreement, he leans back slightly in his chair and says, to no one in particular: "She's been here a few weeks and she's giving us a twenty-year solution."
Nobody argues with that.
Graves meetsus at the property line on the fourth day, in the same spot I've been meeting him since relocating to the pack mansion. He's in civilian clothes, which means this is personal.
Alden sets the non-disclosure agreement on the hood of Graves’s Buick between them.
Graves looks at it without touching it. "What's in it?"
"Specific acknowledgment that any defensive actions taken on Blackmoore property during the hunter incursion fell within the scope of lawful private property defense," Alden says. "And that the county sheriff's office has no outstanding investigative interest in those actions."
Graves looks at Alden for a moment. Then at me. Then back at the agreement.
"You did something up there that you'd rather I not dig into?" he asks.
"We defended the property," Alden says.
"With results you'd rather not explain in detail."
"Yes."
Graves picks up the agreement and reads the first page, then flips to the back and signs it.
