Free Web NovelChapter 43: THE LUNA QUESTION
CALLUM’S POV
Not a single elder moved.
I looked around the table. Every face was looking back at me with an expression that said they had made a decision to get to the end of this before I even walked in.
"I said the meeting is adjourned." I repeated.
"With respect, Alpha." Osric’s voice was calm. "We’re not finished."
"You called an unauthorized assembly in my home." I said. "You’ve said what you came to say. We’re done."
"We’re not done." Elder Malik spoke up from the far end of the table. "Not until there’s an understanding."
I looked at him and then at the others. Dane was standing behind me very still and I could feel the tension coming off him without turning around.
I sat back down.
Osric inclined his head. "Thank you, Alpha."
"Don’t thank me." I glared at him. "Continue."
He leaned forward. "The rumors are already circulating." He said. "Pack members are talking. Scholars in neighboring territories are raising questions about your capacity to lead."
"My capacity?" I repeated. "For what? Because I have led this pack with every ounce of zeal in me. So what capacity?"
"To provide heirs." He said plainly. "To secure the future of this pack beyond your own lifetime."
"I have a daughter." I said.
Several elders exchanged looks. Elder Bran at the far left actually laughed. The sound was short and dismissive and I felt my jaw tighten.
"A daughter." Osric said carefully. "Yes. Nadia is a wonderful young woman. We all love her dearly." He paused. "But this council will not sanction a female Alpha. Not now and not in the foreseeable future. The pack won’t accept it and you know that better than anyone."
"Then perhaps the pack needs to evolve." I looked back at him.
"Perhaps." Osric agreed pleasantly. "But that is a conversation for another decade. What we need right now is an heir. A son. Someone to carry the Ashveil name forward and give this pack the stability it deserves."
"When I’m ready—" I started.
"You’re not going to be ready." Elder Malik cut in. His voice wasn’t unkind but it wasn’t gentle either. "You’ve had eight years, Callum. Eight years and you’ve buried yourself in pack administration and border disputes and every possible distraction available to a grieving man." He looked at me directly. "The grief is understood. It was honoured. But this pack cannot wait another eight years while you process it." frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
The room was very quiet.
"Be careful." I said softly.
"I am being careful." He replied. "Careful enough to say what the rest of this table has been thinking for two years and hasn’t had the nerve to say to your face." He leaned forward. "You need a Luna. Not for your sake. For theirs." He gestured around the room. "For the thousands of people in this pack who deserve a future that’s been properly planned for."
I said nothing for a moment.
Dane shifted behind me. I held up one hand without looking at him and he stilled.
"And you’ve all decided this together." I said, looking around the table. "Unanimously."
A murmur of assent moved around the table.
"Interesting." I muttered.
Osric pulled a folder across the table toward him. "We’ve also taken the liberty of identifying a suitable candidate." He said. "To save you the process of searching. We thought you would appreciate that."
I stared at the folder.
"Her name is Vanessa." He continued. "Daughter of Elder Declan, our war supplies coordinator. Strong bloodline, excellent education, highly regarded in the regional pack community." He paused. "She would be accepted. Enthusiastically, might I add. By the pack and by our allies."
"You’re arranging my mating." I said flatly.
"We’re suggesting someone appropriate." He corrected. "There’s a difference." He pushed the folder toward me. "All we’re asking is that you meet her. Let things develop naturally from there."
"And if I refuse to meet her?" I raised a brow.
The silence that followed was its own kind of answer.
"Then we would be forced to question whether the current leadership of this pack is still serving its best interests." Osric said quietly. "And we would need to open discussions with neighboring packs about succession planning."
Dane made a sound.
"Dane." I interrupted quietly.
He said nothing else.
I looked at Osric. "You would challenge my position." I said. "Over a mating."
"We would protect this pack." He said. "As we have always done. As is our responsibility and our right under pack law." He looked at me steadily. "You know we have the authority to do this, Callum. You’ve always known."
I looked around the table one more time.
Every face held different expression. Some uncomfortable, some apologetic. But all of them decided.
I had led this pack for sixteen years. I had made decisions that kept these people safe and fed and positioned well among the regional packs. I had buried enemies and navigated alliances and held everything together through a grief that nearly broke me and I had done all of it without asking anyone for anything.
And now they were sitting in my house telling me who to take as a mate.
I could fight it. I could make it into something that consumed the next six months and divided the council and gave our enemies something to point at. Or I could do what I had always done.
Adapt.
"I’ll meet her." I agreed.
The room seemed to physically relax.
"Excellent." Osric said. He opened the folder and turned it toward me. "We’ve arranged a lunch tomorrow at noon. Here at the mansion. Some of the elders will be present. Nadia as well if she’s willing." He paused. "Just an informal introduction."
I looked at the photograph in the folder. A woman with dark hair and an expression that said she had been told she was appropriate for something and had accepted that as her purpose.
"Does she know about this?" I asked.
"She knows there’s an opportunity." He said. "She understands the nature of it."
I closed the folder. "Tomorrow at noon." I said. "Now I want all of you out of my house."
They stood and filed out with the satisfied energy of people who had gotten what they came for. Osric was last. He stopped beside my chair.
"You’re doing the right thing." He nodded.
I looked at the wall and said nothing and he left.
Dane came around in front of me and looked at me with his arms folded and an expression that said about fifteen different things simultaneously.
"Don’t." I warned.
"I haven’t said anything." He said. freeweɓnovel.cøm
"You’re thinking loudly and I’d rather not hear it now." I said.
He was quiet for a moment. "What are we going to do?"
I looked at the folder.
Then I thought about a bond that connected three people in ways that were never supposed to happen. Thought about the girl in the communications office who had built something real in this pack with both hands and didn’t know that the elders had just arranged her erasure without knowing she existed.
"For now." I said. "We meet Vanessa." I stood. "And then we figure out what the hell comes next."
