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2026-08-23 21:23:10
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The Bastard Luna: His Unwanted Mate 80
Bret's POVDamian was late on Friday which for a man who had run on precise scheduling since the age of eleven was significant enough. His assistant had already fielded two council queries that would normally have gone directly to him. I had covered both, which I had done without comment because that was what I did and because the reason for the lateness was not one I was going to make a production of.He came through at nine-forty with the specific quality of someone who had not been at the pack house that morning, which I identified from the jacket — wrong one for the weather, meaning he had not checked the forecast at his own wardrobe — and the slight, particular ease of someone who had slept well somewhere comfortable."Council queries," I said, and handed him the two summaries.He read them. Handed them back. "Handle the second one directly. The first needs my sign-off but I'll do it this afternoon.""Yes." I followed him through to his office. He sat. I closed the door, which I
The Bastard Luna: His Unwanted Mate 79
Elara's POVThe inter-pack council session room held forty representatives and smelled of old wood and the specific quality of a space where significant things had been decided for a long time.I had been in it once before, for the first Thursday session after the tribunal. That time I had arrived as something new — the Ashford claim freshly on the record, everyone taking the measure of what I was. Today I arrived as something established. Two months of council sessions. Two months of the Ashford advisory seat being occupied by someone who came prepared and asked precise questions and did not defer to rooms that expected her to.The Keswick review was the third item on the agenda.I spent the first two items reading the supplementary filing they had submitted and making notes in the margin, which I did not need but which gave my hands something to do.Their lead representative was a woman named Sorven — fifties, wolf, the particular composure of someone who had been doing this for a l
The Bastard Luna: His Unwanted Mate 78
Elara's POVHe was late.He knocked at seven-twelve. I opened the door.He had come directly from somewhere, his jacket was still on, which usually came off in the car, and there was the specific quality of someone who had been managing things all day and had arrived at the end of it."The Keswick line submitted a supplementary filing," he said, coming in."I saw it. Aldric called at six.""Their legal team is—""Fast," I said. "I know. Come in properly."He stopped. Looked at me. Something in his face registered that I had said *come in properly* in the specific tone that meant put the work down.He came in properly.He took off the jacket. Hung it on the hook by the door, which he had claimed over a series of Thursdays without either of us noting it. Sat at the table in the way he sat — the floor when Renn was awake, the table when he wasn't, and Renn was already asleep, had been asleep since six-thirty because he had spent the afternoon in a sustained argument with the front door t
The Bastard Luna: His Unwanted Mate 77
Damian's POVThe Monday preparation session was efficient.Aldric had the council review structure mapped out in three columns — the Keswick line's likely questions, the prepared answers, the evidence citations that supported each answer. Elara had annotated it with the economic framing she'd developed, which was sharper than anything in Aldric's draft and which Aldric acknowledged with the specific quality of someone who had expected this and was not bothered by it.We worked through it in two hours. Elara would appear before the council on the first session. I would appear separately on the second. The coordination was the point; the separation was the argument. Aldric would be present at both. Silverpeak's legal representatives would be formally submitted as supporting parties.By the end of it the Keswick line's angle had been so thoroughly prepared against that it was difficult to see how they would find sufficient ground to make the review consequential. Which did not mean they
The Bastard Luna: His Unwanted Mate 76
Elara's POVHe came back on a Tuesday with a smaller bag than he'd left with and the particular quality of someone who has been in a lot of rooms with a lot of people for three weeks and is ready for a room with nobody in it.I had not realized how much I had missed him until I heard his knock — three times, the same knock he always used, and something in me released that I hadn't known was held.I opened the door. He looked at me. Looked at the flat behind me. Then at me again."Something happened," he said."Many things happened," I said. "Come in."He came in. Put his bag down. Looked at the kitchen with the systematic assessment he gave spaces — exit points, occupants, changed variables. His eyes stopped on the chair by the window."That's new," he said."Damian brought it." It had appeared last Thursday without comment, a better chair than the one that had been there, because I had mentioned once that the old one hurt my back after long sessions and apparently Damian had filed th
The Bastard Luna: His Unwanted Mate 75
Damian's POVThe Keswick line moved on Friday.Not the direct response to the statement — I had expected that to take longer, and it did. What moved on Friday was lateral: a formal request, submitted through inter-pack council channels, for a review of the cooperative relationship framework between Ashford-affiliated interests and Wolfe Pack governance structures.Phrased in the anodyne language of administrative procedure. Asking for nothing inflammatory, just clarification. The kind of request that was difficult to oppose without appearing to have something to hide.Bret put it on my desk at eight."Advisory timeline?" I said."Three weeks minimum for the council to schedule a review session. Probably five given the current calendar." He sat down. "They've done this correctly — the request is procedurally sound, the stated grounds are legitimate on their face. We can't block it.""I don't want to block it." I looked at the request. "I want to answer it.""That's what I thought." He
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