THE MESSAGE

ZAC'S POV

The knock comes before the sun is fully up.

I am already awake and sitting at my desk when the door opens. Rowan walks in holding a sealed letter. He does not say good morning. He does not say anything at all. He just sets it on the table in front of me and steps back with his arms folded.

I look at the wax seal. The Black Hallow crest. A wolf skull pressed into black wax.

I already know what this is.

I break it open and read.

“Alpha Roderic Thorne of Black Hallow Pack hereby demands the immediate return of the fugitive omega Ria Vale who stands convicted of the murder of Luna Elara Crest. She is believed to be sheltered within White Fang territory. Failure to comply will be treated as a hostile act against Black Hallow and met with consequences accordingly.*

I fold the letter and set it down.

"Send a reply," I say.

"What do you want it to say?" Rowan asks.

"Refused."

He stares at me. "That is all you want to send? One word?"

"Yes."

He pulls the chair out across from me and sits without being invited, which means he has something to say and he is going to say it regardless. "Zac, sending one word is going to read as a direct insult. It gives Roderic the ammunition to tell every neighboring pack that we are being difficult and unreasonable. The Council is going to hear about this letter before the hour is done."

"Then they will hear about it," I say.

"You need a proper response. Something that still says no but gives us ground to stand on."

"My answer is refused and that is the only answer Roderic gets from me." I stand and move to the window. "Write the reply."

"Let me write something longer," he says, leaning forward with his elbows on the table. "A single sentence at least. Something that sounds like we have thought this through."

"We have thought this through," I say and I look at him over my shoulder. "The answer is refused."

He is quiet for a moment and then he tries again. "At least let me include a line about being open to dialogue. Something that softens it on paper."

I turn to face him fully. "Rowan. Softening it on paper is how Roderic gets to come back with a counter-offer. That is what he wants. He wants a conversation because a conversation gives him time and time means she is still at risk. The answer is refused and it is not an invitation."

Rowan looks at me and then he looks at the letter in his hand and then he looks back at me. "He is not going to drop this."

"I know," I say. "I am not asking him to drop it. I am telling him the answer."

He exhales slowly through his nose. "And when Caius summons us tonight?"

"I will answer Caius tonight," I say. "Right now I am answering Roderic."

Rowan pushes the chair back and picks the letter up from the table. He pauses at the door. "You are making this harder than it has to be."

"I know," I say. "Write it anyway."

He leaves.

I stand at the window and look out over the territory. The morning is quiet. A few warriors move between buildings on their early rotation. The grounds are wide and orderly and every part of them is my responsibility. Every person in them. I have run this pack for eleven years and I have never once made a decision I could not stand behind and I do not intend to start now.

Roderic called what he did to her justice. I know what it actually was.

She asked questions when she woke up. That is the thing I cannot stop thinking about. After three days in a cell with no food and no water, after they dragged her to an execution post and lifted an axe over her head, she sat up in that bed and looked me in the eye and asked where she was and who I was and what was happening. Her whole body was shaking and she still asked. That kind of steadiness is not something a guilty person carries. It is something a person carries when they know the truth and they are still waiting for someone to listen to it.

The knock comes again.

"Come in."

Rowan steps back inside and the look on his face is different from the one he left with. The frustration is gone and something tighter has replaced it.

"What is it," I say.

He holds my gaze for a moment before he speaks. "The Council has already called an emergency session. Tonight. They have already heard about the letter."

I turn back to the window. "Of course they have."

"Zac." He uses my name with the particular weight that means he needs me to hear all of it. "Caius is going to walk in with a prepared list and Boric is going to talk for twenty minutes without saying anything useful and you are going to have to sit through every second of it without shutting the room down before you have made your case. You cannot go in there with only refused."

"I am not going in there with only refused," I say. "The Council gets a full answer. Roderic gets refused. The distinction matters."

"It will matter a lot less once Roderic shows them your reply."

"Then they can read it and understand that I say what I mean." I turn to face him. "Tell them I will be there tonight."

He does not move yet. He crosses his arms and watches me for a moment the way he does when he has one more thing. "What are you going to say to them?"

"I am going to say she is my mate and I will not hand her to a man who calls a three-day starved prisoner standing at an execution post a fair conviction," I say. "And I am going to let them talk until they are finished and then I am going to say it again."

Rowan is quiet. He looks at the floor and then at me. "And if they push back on the mate bond? Caius is going to say it is not a legal argument."

"I am not making a legal argument," I say. "I am telling them what is true. She was not tried. She was accused by the same man who buried his Luna the next morning and had every reason to point at someone else. I am not sending her back into that."