Chapter 101

Elroy POV

“Your political affiliation with a woman you ‘married’ while she was unconscious is of no concern to this council,” Elder Juarez scoffed.

“Moonshadow holds a proxy marriage as binding,” Greg said.

“But I don’t,” Olivia told him. “The thought of the political power you exerted over me is sickening.” She regarded him silently for a moment. “Why are you here?”

“To represent Moonshadow,” he said. “Unlike you.”

“I represent all of Lunaris now, including Moonshadow.”

“Is that why you’re throwing around accusations of poison with a suggestion of Ravencrest involvement?”

“Iris said only that the poison’s ingredients originated in Ravencrest Territory. You’re the one making the leap that Ravencrest Park itself is involved.”

Olivia was getting better at these council meetings, I thought, repressing a smile. Privately, however, I decided that if she outright accused her of something criminal I would challenge him to personal combat and rip off his legs.

“Do you think slandering me will gain you favor with Eclipse Pack?” Greg asked next. “You should be careful not to lose the favor of your true pack.”

“Lunaris is my True Pack,” she replied, and the capital letters she gave the term were clear in her tone. “And for the record, I do suspect a specific someone of poisoning my mother, but he’s not in Ravencrest Pack.”

Recognition of her meaning rippled through the room, and as I watched Greg’s expression turn to open disdain, it occurred to me that Olivia and I could have a contest for who had the shittiest father. I wondered if that were why we could understand each other so well.

But also why we found it so difficult to trust each other.

Just as Greg was about to open his mouth, doubtlessly to say something scathing, Olivia turned from him to address the council at large.

“Alpha Claudia’s poisoning is not the only information we learned while in the keep,” she said. “And it seems the poison kills as easily as it incapacitates.”

Iris stepped forward again. “There had been a recent death at the keep, a beta named Chen. He was a librarian for the council, a good one, a meticulous one. Yet after his death the authorities found his rooms in total disarray, and several of his record books were missing.

“I was able to examine his body, and I discovered clear signs he had been given the poison I found in Alpha Claudia, though in a much greater amount. After that, I was able to determine some symptoms they shared, and I believe no fewer than four other inhabitants of the Moonstone Keep were killed in this manner.”

She looked around, and everyone but Olivia looked back at her in dismay.

“I want to ask you all now, have there been any deaths in your keeps or councils? These would be sudden and seemingly without cause. The person would go to sleep as normal but then not wake up. The autopsy, if one were performed, would likely have found an enlarged liver, high fat, potassium, and/or cholesterol levels in the blood. The most likely misdiagnosis would be of heart failure.”

As she spoke, I could see the various pack members grouping together, away from each other. Suspicion chilled the room, and I could see fear in some eyes.

It was my turn to speak.

“Eclipse, Moonshadow, and Ravencrest have existed together for three centuries, and while these hundreds of years have never been particularly harmonious, we have kept the peace, and we have stood together.

“All of our packs have their foibles, but this sort of deception, this secret murder, this is not only despicable, but new, and I suggest it has a new source, an obvious source.

“My half-brother, the ‘Rogue King,’ has no honor. He fights like a coward. He attacks the vulnerable off the battlefield. When he announced his intentions to take control of Lunaris, did he do it publically? Did he challenge fellow wolves to a fight? No, he snuck into our Luna’s Blood Wood Banquet, an affair designed to launch the White Paw Initiative in defense of the rights of omegas in all our packs.”

This time, I looked around, and the eyes that met mine were less afraid and more affronted, though not at me or at Olivia.

“I would tell you of the honor of the Rogues, but I don’t know what those might be. It may well be that they have no honor. Perhaps that is what has united them now.”

I raised my hands. “I ask you all to investigate any suspicious deaths in your packs and report them to me, or our Luna, and to this council. If we can figure out the pattern of these assassinations, we can learn more about our shared enemy.”

There was general agreement after that, and the representatives went to their chambers to begin their investigations. I stayed with Olivia, Sam, Astor, and Iris when everyone but the servants had left.

“Are you all right?” Iris asked my wife, who I saw was looking a little pale.

“Just tired,” she said, and to my great relief smiled at me. “Thank you.”

“For what?” I asked.

“For supporting me. Perhaps I should have spoken with you first, but Iris and I agreed that any sign of secrecy before my announcement could be disastrous.”

“I understand. But may I suggest you eat something and lie down for now?”

She smiled again, though I saw the weariness of it.

“Meanwhile, I would like Astor’s help in beginning our investigation,” Sam said.

“Yes, that would be most helpful,” I said with a slight bow to Astor.

Olivia and Iris looked shocked but didn’t comment, and I offered my arm to Olivia to lead her to the Lily Room. Once there, I helped her out of her robes and shoes and led her to the bed to lie down. For a long, almost peaceful moment, we were silent together.

“It changes everything,” she said at last.

“What?”

“Knowing she was poisoned, knowing someone took my mother away from me. Standing there with you and Iris, explaining what we could do together as a union of packs, it made me think of what my life could have been like. I could have grown up with a mother who loved me with no stepfather or stepsister working against me.

“I would never have let that bastard Damian near me. I could have been learning how to help Moonshadow Pack. I could have had a happy and fulfilling life, not one fraught with deceptions and betrayals.”

“It must be difficult not to regret so many things,” I said.

“But that’s another thing.”

“What?”

“I don’t regret it, not really.”

I turned to look at her in the dim light of the drawn curtains. Her hair was played back over the pillow, and the curve of her belly over our child fit perfectly in my hand.

“I cannot regret it because it’s led me to be here with you, working together to help Lunaris, nurturing our child, married.”

I held her closer to me, overwhelmed.

“I don’t know what to make of how I feel. It’s incredibly disquieting.” She yawned abruptly. “Except that I want to go to sleep.”

“Then sleep, Olivia. I’ll watch over you, I promise. You and our child.”