The Alpha King And His Chosen Luna novel Chapter 127

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(Caius)

The council met the following morning.

I’d sent word the night before that the meeting would happen at first light and nobody would be excused from it. Pryor had the Ashcrest records arranged on the table by the time I walked in, every document sealed and signed and ready to be presented in the exact order they needed to be presented in.

Seven council members sat around the table.

I looked at each of them once before I sat down.

They’d had a day to talk among themselves, which meant they’d had a day to form opinions and share concerns and decide what questions they were going to ask. I preferred it that way. A council that had already discussed something privately came to a formal meeting with clearer positions and clearer positions were easier to address than the vague discomfort of people who hadn’t yet worked out what they thought.

I sat down.

“Let’s begin,” I said.

The first question came from Aldric.

He was the oldest member of the council, sixty three, silver haired, with the particular stillness of someone who had sat in rooms like this one for long enough that he no longer felt the need to perform authority. He’d served under my father before me and he’d served under me for eight years and in that time he’d never once asked a question he didn’t already

know the answer to.

“The girl,” he said.

I held his gaze. “Her name is Isla.”

He accepted the correction without visible reaction. “Isla Thorne. Former member of Ashcrest pack. Currently residing in Wraithbone.” He paused. “As your mate.”

“Yes,” I said.

“And as a Celestial wolf,” he said.

“Yes.”

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The table absorbed that. Not with shock. They’d had a day. The shock had already happened somewhere private and what was left was the controlled version of it, seven experienced wolves sitting around a table trying to work out what this meant for the territory they served.

“The last confirmed Celestial wolf was over three centuries ago,” said Coren, third seat from the left, younger than Aldric by twenty years and sharper in the way younger council members were sharp before experience taught them patience.

“Yes,” I said.

“Which means there is no living precedent,” she said.

“No,” I said.

“And the old laws,” Aldric said.

I looked at him.

“You’ve read them,” he said. It wasn’t a question.

“Yes,” I said.

“Then you know what they say about a Celestial wolf’s position relative to an Alpha King.”

“I do,” I said. “Equal in all things to her mate.”

Nobody spoke for a moment.

Seven wolves sitting with the weight of it. I let them have the time because forcing the conversation forward before they’d processed what equal actually meant in practice would produce the wrong kind of discussion.

Aldric broke the silence.

“The mark hasn’t been given,” he said.

“No,” I said.

“Which means her position isn’t formally recognised under current law.”

“The old laws recognise it,” I said.

“The old laws haven’t been invoked in three centuries,” Coren said. “There are packs who will argue they no longer apply.”

“They apply,” I said.

“With respect,” Aldric said, “that will need to be demonstrated rather than stated.” He looked

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at me steadily. “Other territories will hear about this. Some already have. A Celestial wolf mated to the Alpha King is not information that stays contained.” He paused. “There will be those who move quickly to challenge what she is before it becomes formally established.”

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