4: I'M NOT RUNNING. I'M SURVIVING.

Matthias's pov

I'm three pages deep into a supply requisition report that makes absolutely no sense—someone's trying to justify why they need twice the usual amount of building materials when we're not in construction season—when I feel them arrive.

My wolf, Knox, stirs in the back of my mind with a growl that feels like rocks grinding together.

'Elders. Multiple. The old one who smells like lies.'

I don't look up from the paperwork, just make a noncommittal sound that Knox interprets correctly as 'I know, I felt them too, and I'm not happy about it either.' 

He's been more present lately, more vocal, ever since the nightmares started getting worse again around the three-year anniversary of the fire. Before Elise and Finn died, Knox was steady and calm, the kind of Alpha wolf who led with quiet authority instead of rage. Now he's all sharp edges and barely contained fury, grieving his mate and pup in the way wolves do—with violence simmering just beneath the surface, waiting for an acceptable target.

We lost everything that mattered, and Knox hasn't forgiven me for arriving too late to save them. I haven't forgiven myself either, so we exist in this uncomfortable partnership where neither of us trusts the other not to fail again.

The knock on my office door comes exactly thirty-nine minutes after the Elders arrived at the pack house—I know because Knox has been counting down the seconds with the kind of obsessive focus he usually reserves for tracking prey.

"I don't want visitors," I say without looking up, because I know exactly who's on the other side of that door and what conversation is about to happen.

The door opens anyway because Ryder is my Beta and my best friend and he stopped asking permission to enter my space about six years ago.

"Too bad about the no visitors thing," he says with that easy grin that makes subordinates relax and enemies underestimate him. "The Elders are here, and they look like they mean business. Also, they've been waiting for almost forty minutes and Elder Moira is starting to look like she wants to rearrange your furniture out of spite."

Knox makes a sound in my head that's somewhere between a laugh and a snarl. 'Good. Let the old wolf wait. Maybe she'll leave.'

She won't leave, I tell him, finally looking up from the supply report that I've stopped caring about entirely. 'She's here about the Luna requirement.'

Knox's response is immediate and violent. 'We don't need a Luna. We had a mate. She's dead. We're not replacing her.'

I agree with him completely, but I also know how pack politics work and Knox has never been particularly interested in the nuances of Elder manipulation and legal requirements.

"Since when do the Elders ever mean anything else?" I ask Ryder, leaning back in my chair.

He grins wider. "Want me to tell them you died? I can be very convincing. I'll throw myself on your corpse and wail about what a great Alpha you were."

The corner of my mouth twitches. "Tempting. But they'd probably just install themselves in my office until they could verify the body. Let them in."

Ryder's expression shifts to something more serious as he steps fully into the office and closes the door behind him. "You know what this is about, right? The Luna thing?"

"I'm aware."

Knox is pacing now, agitated and angry in the back of my mind. 'Tell them no. Tell them to leave. We don't need their laws or their opinions.'

"It's been three years, Matt." Ryder's voice drops into that gentle tone that means he's about to say something I don't want to hear. "The pack's getting nervous. The law is clear—"

"I don't care about the law."

"I know you don't." He moves closer to the desk. "But they do. And if you don't handle this, they'll handle it for you. You know how this works."

Knox snarls in my head. 'Let them try. We'll rip out their throats and mount their heads on the border markers as a warning.'

That's not helpful, I tell him, even though part of me agrees with the sentiment.

I've been Alpha of this territory for eight years and I've spent the last three ruling alone after the fire took Elise and Finn and every piece of warmth I had left in me. 

Pack law says an Alpha can't rule without a Luna for more than two years—something about stability and preventing isolated leadership—and I've been in violation for a full year now because finding another mate feels like betrayal on a level I can't articulate even to myself.

"Fine." I stand and move to the window. "Let them in."

Knox makes a sound of disgust. 'Weak. We should fight.'

'Fighting them gives them grounds to remove us from Alpha status. Then what happens to our pack?'

He doesn't have an answer for that because as much as he wants blood and violence, he also knows our responsibility to the wolves who depend on us for protection.

Ryder opens the door and Elder Moira sweeps in like she owns the place with four other Elders trailing behind her in formation. She's ancient and calculating, silver hair braided with moon-blessed beads, and Knox immediately bristles at her scent.

'Old. Rotten inside. Dangerous.'

I agree with him on all counts.

"Alpha Matthias." She inclines her head in something that might be respect if you squint. "Thank you for seeing us."

"What do you want, Moira?"

She smiles, and I don't trust it one bit. "Direct as always. Very well. We've come regarding pack law—specifically, the requirement that an Alpha maintain a Luna. You've been ruling alone for three years."

"My pack is stable." My voice comes out flat and cold.

Knox growls. 'Tell her to leave. Tell her we don't need her laws.'

"Nevertheless," Moira continues, "the law must be upheld. We've been patient out of respect for your loss, but the time has come."

I can feel where this is going, and I don't like it. "What do you want?"

"We have a solution. There's an Omega who needs protection, and you need a Luna. We're proposing an arrangement."

Another Elder speaks up. "Her name is Lyra. She's twenty-one. An orphan—lost her family in a rogue attack years ago. The same tragedy took her voice. She's been mute since childhood."

Knox goes very still in my mind. 'Damaged goods. They're trying to foist off a broken wolf on us.'

"And you're bringing her to me why?" I ask.

"She needs an Alpha's protection. You need a Luna. So It's practical." Moira's smile is smooth as silk and twice as deceptive. "This also settles that political debt from five years ago. Consider it full compensation."

I calculate quickly—refusing gives them grounds to challenge my Alpha status, accepting means having someone in my space when I've spent three years making sure I don't have to care about anyone ever again.

"Why hasn't anyone else claimed her?"

"Many find her... difficult. The muteness unsettles some wolves. But you understand loss, Alpha Matthias. We thought you might be more accommodating."

Knox snarls. 'Manipulation. She's using our grief against us.'

'I know. But the logic is still sound.'

"Can we see her first?" Ryder asks.

"She's being prepared for transport. But I assure you, she's suitable. She's a healer's apprentice, literate, and can communicate through writing."

Knox paces in my mind, agitated. 'This is wrong. Something smells wrong about this entire thing.'

I think about Elise's laugh, Finn's small hand in mine, the fire that took them both while I was too far away to help. I'm not looking for love or connection—those things are dead and buried. But I can provide protection, and I can satisfy the stupid pack law.

"Fine." The word comes out cold. "I'll accept her as Luna but for legal purposes only. She gets a room, protection, pack status but nothing more."

Knox explodes in my head. 'NO. We don't need a replacement. We don't want a stranger in our territory. Tell them no!'

It's done, I tell him firmly. 'She's coming whether we like it or not.'

Moira looks satisfied. "Excellent. We'll deliver her within the week."

The Elders file out, and I'm left with Ryder watching me with concern.

"You okay?"

"No. But when am I ever?"

"Want me to prepare the family wing?"

"No." The word comes out sharper than i intended. "East Wing. Away from my quarters."

"Matt, the pack will expect—"

"I don't care what they expect. She's here because of pack law, because I need to maintain my Alpha status. That's all this is."

Ryder is quiet for a moment, and then he says gently, "You know eventually you're going to have to stop running from it."

"I'm not running. I'm surviving."

"That's not the same as living."

He leaves me alone in my office, and I stand at the window looking out at the family wing in the distance—the section of the pack house I haven't entered since the night of the fire, since the night I failed to protect the people I loved most in the world. The windows are dark and empty and I've given orders that no one is to go in there, that it's to remain exactly as it was the day they died.

One week.

In one week I'll have a Luna I don't want, fulfilling a law I don't care about and living a lie I'm legally required to maintain.

And maybe, if I keep enough distance between us, I won't fail her the way I failed Elise and Finn.

Knox is still growling in my mind, angry and grieving and afraid in ways he'd never admit. 'This is a mistake. We'll fail her like we failed them.'

Maybe, I agree quietly. 'But at least if we keep our distance, it won't hurt as much when we do.'

Maybe if I don't let myself care, I won't have to live through that kind of loss ever again.