“If you tell Maryjane I’ll reassign your parking spot to the basement.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“Try me.”
“You won’t. You like driving me to work too much. You’d have to walk all the way to the basement to pick me up and you’re too lazy for that.”
“I am not lazy.”
“You made me walk across the entire office to close the door yesterday instead of getting up yourself.”
“That was strategy, not laziness.”
“Sure it was.”
I laughed into his chest and felt his arm tighten around me. I closed my eyes. His heartbeat was slow under my ear. The signed copy was on the nightstand. The peonies were on my desk twenty minutes away, probably dropping petals onto my keyboard.
I fell asleep and I didn’t brace for anything. No anxiety, no flinching, no waiting for the bad thing. Just his heartbeat and his hand in my hair and warmth.
19
— • —
Finneas
The council chamber was at the estate, and there were five senior Alphas seated around it. I took the head and Aldric was already pushing before his ass hit the chair.
“The Dolan family says the boundary was set three generations back.” He slid a folder across the table. “The Webber family has documentation.”
“What kind of documentation?”
“A hand-drawn map from 1952.”
“Drawn by whom?”
“A Webber.”
“So the Webbers have a map drawn by a Webber that says the land belongs to the Webbers.” I pushed the folder back. “Bring both families in. I’ll walk the boundary myself and make the call based on actual land markers, not a map someone’s great-uncle drew after a few drinks.” I looked around the table. “What’s next?”
A young wolf had shifted in a public park. Ended up on a homeowner’s security camera. I ordered the footage acquired and destroyed and the wolf brought in for a formal reprimand. “If he shifts in public again, the consequence doubles. Make sure he understands that.”
We moved through the rest: a supply chain dispute between two of the southern district families, a request from the healer’s compound for expanded territory, a noise complaint from the construction near the river that I’d already addressed once and was getting tired of addressing again. I made decisions fast and clean because that was the job. Listen, weigh, decide, move. My father used to drag these sessions out for hours, turning every agenda item into a philosophical debate about legacy and tradition. I wasn’t my father. The pack needed answers, not lectures.
The session wrapped in under an hour. Aldric’s permanent scowl softened half a degree, which from him was practically a standing ovation. The other Alphas filed out talking among themselves, the energy in the room lighter than it had been in months. I’d been running these sessions since I was twenty-four, sitting in a chair my father’s ass had worn smooth, making decisions for hundreds of wolves who depended on me to get it right. Some nights the weight of it crushed me. Tonight it fit.
Luca caught me in the corridor after, falling into step beside me with his hands in his pockets.
“Good session,” he said.
“You sound surprised.”
“Last month you missed two briefings. So yeah, the bar was on the floor.” He glanced sideways. “She’s good for you, Finn.”
“Don’t start.”
“I’m stating a fact. You’re sharper. You’re sleeping. You made Aldric almost smile, which I didn’t think was anatomically possible.” He paused. “Hell, you even handled the Webber thing without losing your temper. Last time a boundary dispute came up you threw a pen at the wall.”
“It was a pencil.”
