Chapter 8

They left the hospital at six in the morning once Margaret was moved to a room and the doctor promised she'd sleep through most of the day anyway. Ivy hugged her mother goodbye promised to call and didn't tell her any part of the truth waiting back at the compound.

The drive back was quiet. Kades knuckles were pale on the wheel the way.

"Tell me what I'm walking into " Ivy said, past the halfway point.

"A council meeting. Pack elders, members, anyone with a formal voice in succession matters." Kade didn't look away from the road. "Damon will have spent the night building his case. That I left during a bonding window. That I can't be trusted to put the pack "

"Is that true? That you can't leave during a bonding window?"

"Its never come up before. There's no rule against it. Which means Damon gets to define what the rule should have been after the fact in front of people who're scared enough to listen to him." His jaw worked. "I need you to let me do the talking in there. Can you do that?"

"I can try."

"That's not really a yes."

"It's the one you're getting today " Ivy said and something in Kades face almost almost smiled.

The great hall was already full when they walked in. Twenty, thirty people, standing in a loose circle around a raised stone floor that looked older than the house itself. Damon stood at the center calm, composed like he'd been expecting this entrance and had already planned three responses to it.

Elena stood near the front arms crossed, face unreadable.

"Kade." Damons voice carried easily across the hall. "Glad you made it back. We were starting to worry."

"You called an emergency council without me. During a bonding window. On what grounds."

"On the grounds that an alpha who disappears during the critical four days of the succession year raises questions." Damon spread his hands, reasonable always so reasonable. "I'm not accusing you of anything, cousin. I'm asking the question everyone in this room is asking. Where were you and why did it matter more than pack business?"

Kades hand found Ivys, steady, grounding. "My surrogates mother had an emergency. I drove her to the hospital myself. Stayed until she was stable. If thats a crime now you'll have to write it into the charter yourself because it isn't one yet."

A murmur moved through the crowd. Not hostile, exactly. Uncertain.

"A generous gesture " Damon said. "Toward a woman who's n't pack on a night the whole territory needed its alpha present. I wonder what else might take priority over this packs future going forward."

"Say what you're actually trying to say, Damon."

"I'm saying " Damon said, voice dropping, sharpening, "that some of us are starting to wonder whether this surrogate arrangement is really about securing an heir all or whether its become something else. Something thats already compromising your judgment."

The hall went very quiet.

Ivy felt every eye in the room shift toward her weighing, measuring. She understood, with a cold drop in her stomach exactly what Damon was doing. Not attacking the pregnancy. Attacking the reason behind it. Making Kade look like a man who'd lost control of himself over a woman of a leader securing his packs future.

"Shes carrying my heir " Kade said, flat final. "Confirmed as of this week. Thats not compromised judgment Damon. That's the point of this arrangement succeeding faster than anyone expected."

The murmur turned into something. Elenas arms uncrossed slowly her face doing something complicated that Ivy couldn't read from across the hall.

Damons easy smile didn't waver,. Something behind his eyes went very still.

"Confirmed " he repeated. "How fast "

"Fast enough " Kade said, "that it's none of your business how only that its done."

"One pairing." Damon said it slowly like he was working out a math problem in front of the hall and Ivy watched the exact moment he landed on the answer he wanted. "One. Already confirmed. Cousin. Do you have any idea how that actually is?"

Nobody answered him. Nobody needed to. Ivy could see it moving through the room already whispered from person to person the shape of question Rhys had almost asked at breakfast three days ago.

"There's one reason a bond takes that fast " Damon said, turning slowly to address the whole hall now voice carrying, performing. "I think everyone here already knows what it is. I think the only person who hasn't said it loud yet is standing right next to her."

Kades hand tightened around Ivys.

"Don't " he said, quiet, low meant for Damon.

"Fated mate " Damon said loud enough for every single person, in the hall to hear. "Isn't that right, cousin? You didn't hire a surrogate all. You found your mate. You've been letting the entire pack believe it was a business arrangement ever since."