C2

“You’re not getting your Ascension to Alpha Counsel. The elders made that call before tonight’s big pack meeting,” Lucien Adebayo says. He’s my grandfather, the oldest leader in our bloodline.

His voice is deep, but way too quiet. It makes me boil. I just stare at him and the other elders sitting around the long stone table. “Are you serious?” I say, not moving an inch.

Lucien sits at the head of the table. His white hair looks flawless, face set and hard as granite. He wears a dark cloak only the Eternal Alpha Bloodline gets one like that.

My father sits next to him, High Alpha Lestat of Moonfang. He’s a senior leader in the Moonfang Alpha Council. Normally, his voice fills every inch of this chamber. Tonight, he’s silent, picking at a bit of roasted meat from a silver tray. He keeps staring at me the whole time, pale eyes sharp. His giant hands make the food look tiny, but he loves these big family feasts.

Uncle Louis Adekunle is on the other side, another heavy hitter in pack politics. He’s got a serious vibe tonight, sipping red wine, bold leather vest on showing off his power. He’s always doting on his mate, Magnus Whitmore. I should’ve guessed this wasn’t just some happy dinner.

“We don’t joke about pack business,” Dad says, shoving the tray closer to me, like it’ll calm me down.

“I did everything right for this territory!” I shout back. “Why don’t I get the rank I earned?”

“No wolf is born holding a rank,” Uncle Louis says.

“The pack listens to me,” I argue. “I hunt more than anyone, and I guard the borders better than the rest. Everybody knows it.”

“Sure, but your mind’s always somewhere else,” Dad says. “You don’t help the pups learn to hunt. You keep to yourself.”

“I do my job,” I snap. The younger wolves are always excited to run with me, never complain.

Silence. Grandfather Lucien adds honey to his cup, stirring it with a little bone spoon.

“You know I’m the best choice,” I say. “Santiago Cole gets his ascension this moon cycle.”

Lucien’s face tightens. Santiago Cole my biggest rival from the enemy pack. He loves sneaking across our borders, wrecking our hunting grounds. Our bloodline despises him. “That doesn’t matter. You have a wild mind, Lestat.”

“Wild mind? What are you talking about? I keep to myself. I don’t even look at the girls in the pack.”

“The girl from the wild woods,” Grandfather says.

I freeze. The Moon Queen.

“We’re afraid for you,” Grandfather says, closing his eyes. “I know you’re still searching for her.”

“She was real. She saved me.”

“Lestat, your mother gave you bad silver water,” Grandfather says, sounding sad. “It made your mind see things.”

“You think I imagined her?”

Dad clears his throat now. He’s looking at me with pity like a dad, not the High Alpha. “You said you ate wild berries from her hand.” He drops his food.

He doesn’t buy any of it. He thinks the silver water messed me up thinks my hungry, desperate brain just made up a forest fairy to get me through that burning cabin.

My fists clench. I’m not weak. I didn’t dream her.

“If there was a wild girl, our best trackers would’ve caught her scent,” Uncle Louis says. “My mates and I searched everywhere. There was nothing.”

He looks away, can’t handle my pain, but honestly, I don’t care about his pity. My stomach feels like it’s churning with rotten meat. “You just want me to forget her.”

“We want you with the pack you have now,” Dad says. “It’s been twenty-two years, Lestat.”

“No.” I glare at the big shield on the wall behind Grandfather. Three silver wolves with giant fangs. Carved deep into the stone: LOYALTY AND UNITY. We learn that before we even shift for the first time.

But I owe my loyalty to the girl who saved me. She’s my true mate. I can’t drop her just because it takes time. I won’t call her a ghost because you all say I should.

“I am an Adebayo wolf,” I say. “I don’t quit.”

Dad drains his whiskey, tense. Uncle Louis keeps swirling his wine, watching me. Grandfather just taps his fingers.

“Even if you never sit on the Alpha Council?” Grandfather asks.

“Even then.” I look at Dad. “I could join another pack territory.”

Total lie. I love my pack. The Moonfang Dominion is my home. I bled for this place. But you don’t show weakness when you’re fighting for something you want.

Grandfather shoots up, face white with rage. “You’d leave your bloodline for a ghost?”

I stare him down. “Didn’t you leave me first when you took my rank?”

“Fine,” Grandfather snaps. “Go find a mate and complete a Sacred Moonbond Union.”

My mouth drops open. “Where am I supposed to find a Luna right now?” I ask. They’re probably trying to stick me into some arranged bond with a girl from the Alpha Noble Circle.

“We don’t care,” Grandfather says, hand waving like I’m nothing. “Prove to us your mind isn’t broken by this old story. Find a strong female wolf. Start your own real family.”

“I’ll find her and finish the bond before the next moon feast,” I say. “And you’ll give me my Ascension to Alpha Counsel.”

“If you can actually do it,” Grandfather says, raising his eyebrow. Daring me. “But can you?”

“Don’t ever think I’m weak, Grandfather.” I eye Dad and Uncle Louis. “It won’t even take a moon cycle.”

“Then we expect to see your new mate at the next pack gathering in thirty days,” Uncle Louis says, looking like he’s expecting the sky to fall before that happens.

I storm out of the stone chambers, shift into my wolf form, and run hard into the darkness until my paws ache.

Out there, just as the wind shifts, something sweet hits my nose wild grass, wet earth, berries mixed together. A scent I haven’t smelled since the fire, twenty-two years ago.