"You knew it would happen this fast?"
"I knew it would happen," he says. "The pace surprised me too."
I look at him. "Ronan called me ‘Dr. Ellis’ yesterday."
Alden takes his time responding. "He'll get there."
"I'm not in a rush," I say.
“Ready for Kieran’s trial?” He slings his arm over my shoulder as we walk toward the stone clearing.
“Yeah.” I nod.
Kieran's trial runs for days.
I attend each session, because I drafted the procedure and I want to see whether it holds under actual use. It does. The testimony structure works—witnesses separated, accounts taken in sequence, council questions restricted to clarification rather than leading.
Kieran testifies for most of the second day, and he does it without deflection, which is more than I expected and probably more than he expected of himself.
The council deliberates for six hours and emerges with the exile sentence at dusk.
Brynn reads it in the clearing with the full pack present. "Kieran Rourke is stripped of pack membership and designation. He is declared rogue and expelled from Blackmoore territory. He is forbidden to contact pack members or approach Blackmoore land. This sentence is permanent and will be enforced by the Alpha." She sets the record down. "It is done."
Kieran stands with his hands at his sides and his head slightly bowed and says nothing.
“You must vacate pack territory immediately, along the Trail of Teeth.”
“The Trail of Teeth?” I whisper to Alden.
“You’ll see.”
While Kieran is released from his bonds, other pack members shift, and form a corridor from the stone clearing to the edge of the mansion grounds, all the way to the tree line. Kieran gives one last look around before shifting.
He runs through the corridor of wolves, all of them nipping and growling at him as he ran. The nips were superficial, but each one had to hurt. Within a few strides, he was limping, but he didn’t stop.
“Hey! He’s not supposed to get killed,” I argue.
“He won’t be. This is a standard exile ritual, and if we want to blend your trial structure with pack law, both have to be honored,” Alden says.
“Alright, you’re right.”
Kieran disappears into the tree line, and the wolves howl their pleasure.
A smile touched my lips and I rested my head on Alden’s shoulder.
"You're pleased," Alden says beside me.
"I'm relieved," I say. “But also pleased to see the pack embracing change that works.”
The Luna seal goes in the following morning.
It's a physical marker—carved stone, the sigil pressed into its face, set into the ground at the inner edge of the ritual ring where the Luna traditionally stands during council sessions. Brynn positions it without ceremony, tamps it level with the heel of her staff, and steps back.
The pack members who are present look at it, then at me.
I step up and stand on it.
It fits exactly.
