Chapter 1

Zane’s POV

“If one more Elder emails me a bride, I am blocking the whole Council.”

The words leave my mouth before I can stop them. No one hears me. Good. The study is quiet, but it feels like it is breathing down my neck. Wood walls. Old leather. Stacks of files that smell like ink and duty. I drop into the chair and stare at the top folder until the lines blur. Paper should not scare an Alpha, but it steals time I could spend training, scouting, or doing anything that feels like air.

I tap the keyboard and open my inbox. Elder Parker sits at the top like a tick. Subject line says I should consider Lydia Redfield as my Luna. I do not open it. I delete it. I already deleted the last twenty. Lydia. Another pretty name wrapped in politics. Another chain with perfume on it.

My jaw tightens. The office hums. I rub the spot between my eyes and try to breathe past the heat in my chest. I am Alpha of the Stonebrook. I am not a puppet on a Council string. They keep forgetting that I am the one who decides if and when I take a mate. The pack is strong. We are profitable. We do not need a Luna to breathe.

The stack of files leans toward me. I shove it aside and pull one open anyway. Numbers. Patrol rosters. Trade contracts. I was supposed to finish this last night. I did not. After Parker’s call I drove out of the territory and found noise and dim lights and bodies that did not ask anything of me. Two she wolves. No names. No promises. It took the edge off. It did not fix the inbox.

I sign three forms. My pen scratches and stalls. The mind link in the back of my head buzzes, then thins. I cut it to a low hum. I want an hour with no voices. Just me and the ink. The moment I settle, footsteps come down the hall. Beta steps. Confident. A little fast. My door clicks twice.

“Enter.”

Tyler slips in with that half grin that asks for trouble. He looks clean but not rested. His shirt is on straight, yet I still catch the soft trace of Vivian’s scent. Warm sugar. He tries to hide it behind a cool face. It does not work.

“You shut me out,” he says, closing the door with his boot. “Again.”

“I did not shut the pack out. I shut you out,” I say, and flip a page. “There is a difference.”

He comes to the desk and plants his hands on the wood. “You do that when you want to ignore a problem. So here I am. In person. Harder to mute.”

“I mute you because you talk too much in the morning.”

“You would talk too much too if you had a mate like mine.” He tries to stay serious. The corner of his mouth gives up first.

“You reek of happiness,” I say. “Go shower in cold water before the warriors start smiling back.”

“They already do. It keeps morale up.” He leans closer. “Elder Parker has been calling me. He thinks you lost your phone. Or your manners.”

“Neither.” I sign another form. “I lost my patience.”

“He wants you to meet Lydia Redfield.”

“I read the subject line. Then I buried it.” I set the pen down and look at him. “You came all the way from your bed to tell me the same thing the delete button told me.”

“I came because ignoring Elders does not make them go away. It makes them gather. Parker is not the only one pushing this. They are using the same song. A Luna strengthens an Alpha. A Luna calms a pack. A Luna opens doors.”

“Our doors are already open. Our borders are calm. Our numbers are up. Try a new song.”

Tyler takes the chair without asking. That is how you know he grew up with me. He sits, but he does not relax. “We both know this is not about doors. It is about influence. If they push in a line, even you will feel it.”

“Let them push. I know how to push back.”

“Do you remember being seventeen,” he says, “standing in this same room while Elders circled like crows. Your parents had been gone eight hours. They wanted you to hand the pack to a safe pair of hands. That is their phrase. Safe pair of hands.”

I remember. I remember the smell of blood and rain. I remember the weight of eyes. I remember telling them no. I remember Tyler at my back, fresh and fierce, daring them to try me. They did. They still do. I learned to outthink men who wanted to own me. I learned to outfight men who wanted to bury me. I did not keep our ground by taking a wife for politics.

“My hands were safe enough,” I say.

“Because you had a plan. You still do. I am asking you to treat this like a new fight. They packaged it as marriage, but it is pressure. That makes it pack business.”

He is not wrong. He is also not right enough to move me. “You came here to sell me a date.”

“I came here to keep you ahead of the storm.”

I lean back. Tyler watches me the way he used to watch a target on the training field. Calm. Ready. Loyal enough to argue. He knows me. He also knows the part I do not say out loud. There is a reason I never take a woman for more than a night. There is a reason I never claim. Wolves think I am cold. It is not cold. It is control. I have seen what happens when people love my name more than they love me. I do not let that near my pack.

“You think Lydia loves your name,” Tyler says, as if he snatched the thought from my head.

“They all love the title. Luna. It shines. It sticks. It makes men kneel. It is not for sale.” I pick up the pen and set it down again. “Tell Parker the same thing.”

Tyler studies me. He knows pushing me now will fail. He takes a different road. “Switch tracks. Patrols report rogue movement near the northern ridge. Two sightings in the last three nights. Probably scouts. No scent markers. They are skilled or new.”

“That is not new,” I say. “But the timing is interesting.”

“Right when the Council is loud,” he says. “I do not like it.”

“Double the night teams. Pull Evan from logistics and put him on the ridge. He reads ground better than most.”

“Done.” He waits. “What about Parker.”

“Delete him.”

“Again.”

“Again.”

Tyler laces his fingers and rests them on his stomach. “You know I am meant to keep bridges from burning.”

“I am not lighting anything on fire. I am refusing a leash.”

He drops the subject for a breath and looks over the desk. “You hate this room.”

“I hate sitting while the world moves.”

He laughs once. “Then come spar before noon. Knock the edge off.”

“I will if I survive these forms.” I flip to a patrol map and mark a shift with my pen. “How is Vivian.”

His eyes soften. It is small, but I catch it. “Perfect. She tried to keep me in bed.”

“Tell her to stop delaying my Beta.”

“You delay yourself fine.”

“You were always a mouth,” I say, but there is no heat in it. The room loosens a little. He lets me work in silence for a minute and then he clears his throat.

“There is one more thing,” he says. “Parker wants to send a formal envoy. He will dress it up as a courtesy visit. You know what it is.”

“A stage.”

“A stage with witnesses.”

“They want to force me into a polite corner.” I cap the pen. “Fine. If he sends them, I will receive them. Here. My time. My rules.”

Tyler blinks. “You will meet them.”

“I will meet them to set terms. Not to be sold. If they step over the line, they leave.”

“Understood.”

“And I will not sit with Lydia alone.”

“Of course.”

“If she comes at all.”

“If she comes at all,” he echoes, then leans forward. “Zane, you can say no and still make it a win. A public no, done right, reminds them who leads this pack.”

“I do not need a reminder. They do.”

He nods. “Then we will give them one.”

We go over the envoy plan in quick strokes. Security. Entry points. Where the warriors will stand. Where the Elders will sit if they sit at all. Tyler sketches the route in his head and I match it with patrol notes. It is clean. It is tight. It is ours.

When we are done, he lets his shoulders drop. “There. You handled the politics without punching a wall.”

“I save walls for real enemies.”

He grins and rises. “You sure you do not want to try a real solution. Like a mate. The Moon Goddess knows what she is doing.”

“The Moon Goddess has a sense of humor. She has had nine years to send me someone. I am still waiting. I am not holding my breath.”

“You do not get to pick. That is the point.”

“I picked patience,” I say. “It works.”

He shakes his head. “One day you will hear her voice and the ground will tilt and all this control will feel like paper. You will see.”

“I prefer steel to paper.” I flick my eyes to the door. “Go. You have work.”

“I will double the ridge teams and prep for Parker’s envoy.” He reaches for the handle, then stops. “Do you want me to warn Vivian about a possible event at the house. She can help with staff.”

“She will hear it from you the moment you think it. Save your breath for patrol orders.”

He opens the door. The hall air moves across the desk and tastes like pine. He looks back at me. “There is a world where Lydia is just a name and not a test. If that world shows up in my inbox, I will forward it.”

“If it shows up, I will still delete it.”

He laughs and steps out. The room settles again. The files stare. I make them bleed ink. Five more forms. Six. A map update. A trade note to sign. When the pen slows, I look out the window at the training grounds. Warriors move in pairs. Sun on shoulders. Dust in the air. That is the work that made us the largest pack in North America. Not letters. Not rings.

People think I am cold because I do not claim. That is wrong. I am loyal to this land and the wolves who bleed for it. I will not hand them a Luna who wants a crown more than a home. I will not teach young warriors that power can be married for. I will not build a family on a bargain. If I take a mate, it will be on my terms and for the right reason. Not because a subject line tells me to.

The inbox blinks again. Parker. New subject line. Courtesy visit request. I read it this time. Tyler was right. It is a stage. It is also a chance to make my answer clear without turning it into a war. I draft a reply that sets date, time, and ground rules so simple a pup could follow them. No private audience. No terms in whispers. Witnesses on both sides. I hit send and lean back.

The mind link hums sharper. I open it fully. The pack voice rolls through me like river water. Calm. Present. Mine. Tyler’s signal rises above the rest.

Envoy prep started. Ridge teams doubled. Evan reassigned.

Good. I send back a single word.

Proceed.

He answers with a laugh only I can hear. Copy that, Alpha. Try not to delete Parker in front of his envoy.

“Tell him to stop acting like spam,” I say into the empty room, and the window throws my voice back at me. I pick up the next file and sign where the line tells me to sign. Control is not the enemy. It is the reason my people sleep.

The door opens a crack. Tyler’s head appears again. “One last thing. If the envoy includes Lydia, do you want her shown through the east hall or the front steps.”

“Front steps,” I say without looking up. “And Tyler.”

He waits.

“Make sure she understands this is my house.”

“Clear as daylight,” he says.

“Good. Now go do your job so I can finish mine.”