Chapter 466

When I came outside, the pack grounds were alive with the morning version of the previous night’s aftermath.

—

Not chaotic Shadowmere processed things quickly, and the combination of eight hours of celebration and the specific exhaustion of people who’d been in a combat situation meant that the pack was moving at a slightly reduced pace but with the distinct energy of people who’d done something and knew it and were carrying the knowledge of it in a way that felt good.

People called to me.

This was what was different. Not the polite acknowledgment of the Luna who needed to be respected, not the grudging minimum of people managing a political reality. Actual calling – by name, with the specific warmth of people who’d been in something together and were expressing it.

“Luna!”

“Good morning, Luna Aria!”

“She’s awake! Luna’s awake!”

—

– one of Andrew’s wolves, who’d been in the link A man I recognized from the eastern flank

waved from across the grounds with me for the whole of the previous night’s operation with the casual ease of someone greeting someone they knew. Not the Alpha’s mate. Not the person in the position. Just someone he’d been connected to. Someone he recognized.

—

The runes on my hands were visible in the morning light. I saw people noticing them – glances, looks, the specific attention of people who’d registered something new. Nobody said anything yet. But they were noting it.

I had silver-glowing hair and runes on my hands and a wolf in my head and thirty semi- permanent connections to the pack’s wolves and the pearl in my pocket.

This was a lot of things to carry into an ordinary morning.

I looked around for the familiar faces.

No Nina. No Elite. No Jordan. No Ivory, who I was simultaneously glad was presumably still in

recovery and worried about because she was Ivory and recovery was not her natural state.

And no Kael.

I caught the arm of a passing pack member – one I recognized from the shelter escort team, a young woman named Bea.

“Have you seen Alpha Kael?” I said. “Or Nina, or—”

“Alpha Kael is in the council meeting,” Bea said, and her voice had the specific quality of someone delivering information they found mildly entertaining. “Elder Morrison called it. The elders have-” she paused, choosing words with the care of someone aware that I was the Luna and Morrison was on the elder council, “-opinions. That they are expressing verbally.”

“Opinions about last night,” I said.

“About last night,” Bea confirmed. “About the approach. About-” she hesitated.

“About me,” I said.

She looked slightly uncomfortable. “The Luna’s role in the engagement,” she said carefully. “Some of the elder council feel that—”

“The Luna should not have been in a combat role,” I said.

“Some of them,” Bea said. “Not all of them. And the pack-” she gestured at the grounds around us, at the people who’d been calling my name all morning, “-the pack has a different opinion. Which is also being expressed. Verbally. At volume.” She paused. “I think Alpha Kael is trying to manage the gap between those two sets of opinions.”

“How long has the meeting been going,” I said.

“Since six this morning,” Bea said. “So-” she checked, “-about two hours.”

Two hours. Kael had been in a meeting with Morrison for two hours, presumably defending the decisions made last night including the decision to leave me in command of the pack during the retrieval operation.

Silver made a sound in my head that was not quite a word but communicated an opinion about elder councils in general and Morrison in particular.

“I have an opinion too,” I told Silver, internally.

*I know,* she said. *Are you going to share it in the meeting?**

I thought about the meeting. About Morrison’s face when I’d told him to sit down in the hall, before the battle, with the anchor in my voice and thirty wolves behind me. About Morrison’s face when he’d sat.

“Where’s the meeting,” I said to Bea.

“The main council room,” she said. “First floor of the-”

“I know where the council room is,” I said.

Silver made a sound that was much closer to a word. The word was *yes.

*

I moved through the pack grounds with the specific quality of someone who had a direction and knew why they were going in it. The people who’d been greeting me parted naturally, not from deference – from the specific awareness of a group of people who’d spent last night following someone and recognized the way that someone moved when they were going somewhere with intent.

“Luna’s got a face on,” Andrew said, from somewhere to my left. I looked over. He was standing with Sam and two of the eastern flank wolves, all of them in the specific relaxed state of people who’d been in combat twelve hours ago and had slept and were now in the assessment phase.

“What face,” I said.

“The one from last night,” Andrew said. “Right before you told everyone we were going to prove Damon wrong.”

“I have a meeting,” I said.

“The elder council meeting,” Sam said. He said it with the specific knowledge of someone who’d been watching the morning develop.

“You knew,” I said.

“Morrison was going at six,” Sam said. “Everyone knew. There was a brief discussion about whether someone should-” he stopped.

“Should what,” I said.

“Go warn you,” Andrew said. “Or wake you up. There was a vote.”

“A vote,” I said.

“The result was: let her sleep,” Andrew said. “She handled one hundred fifty wolves and six witches last night, and an extra 60 wolves, she can handle Morrison in the morning after eight

hours of rest.” He paused. “The vote was unanimous.”

“Also,” Sam said, “we wanted to see what happened when she showed up without warning. Professionally speaking.”

Silver made a sound that was definitely a laugh.

“Thirty wolves,” I said. “I have thirty wolves in my head permanently now. I want you to know that.”

Andrew looked at Sam. Sam looked at Andrew.

“Permanently,” Andrew said.

“The link is dormant but it’s there,” I said. “My wolf Silver says channels don’t disappear just because the emergency does.”

Andrew was quiet for a moment.

“That’s,” he said.

“Significant,” Sam said.

“Yes,” I said. “So when I say I know what you’re thinking-”

“We’ll be on our best behavior,” Andrew said immediately.

“Good,” I said. “Tell the others.”

I kept walking.

*Nicely done,* Silver said.

“Thank you,” I said, internally.