Chapter 128

Olivia POV

I had thought I might go to my mother, but as much as I was dedicated to Claudia, as thrilled and elated as I was that she was back with us, I could not see the mother who had held me as a child long ago in the political creature who walked and talked and orchestrated events now.

Instead, I went to Iris. She was Elroy’s mother, smart and sharp and (justifiably) ruthless. I knew I would get the truth from her. And if it were not the whole truth, it would be more than I would get from my mother.

I went to her quarters early in the morning after a more than stilted and forced “domestic” breakfast with Elroy. I was unsurprised to find her hard at work in her lab, her apprentices scurrying around her and watching everything with wide eyes and almost flapping ears.

At my request to talk, she took me into her private parlor, which I found calming. The fireplace made the room pleasantly cozy, the art on the walls was neither challenging nor saccharine, and the coffee she served me, though decaf, was delicious. I told myself to visit more often.

“You’re here about Emma, I suppose,” she said.

I nodded.

Iris opened her mouth, then snapped it shut, and for a moment I saw her wolf inside her. But she shook her head, and the image disappeared.

“Has anyone told you about the prophecy of Stormhowl Pack?” she asked.

“The what?”

Iris closed her eyes before opening them up to look at the cheery fire.

“You know of Stormhowl Pack?”

I almost felt offended, but she was just figuring things out before telling her piece. “Of course.”

She smiled at me just slightly then assumed the air of a prophet. I was thrown by how well it looked on her.

“The original and most senior High Priestesses of the original Stormhowl Pack, the ancestral heritage of Eclipse, Moonshadow, and Ravencrest, chose not to join any of the new Packs after the split. She lived for many years and passed away only thirty years ago, leaving behind a Moon Goddess prophecy before her death.”

She took a sip of coffee, nodded at herself, and continued in a slightly lower tone: “‘At the place where moon’s shadow and eclipse meet, the strongest Dark Moon Wolf King will be born.’”

Something tickled my memory in those words, and I sat for a few minutes trying to clarify the sensation, but there was nothing.

Iris sighed. “This prophecy is known only to the upper echelons of Eclipse Pack, who believe it suggests that the merging of the bloodlines that divided Moonshadow and Eclipse will produce a new werewolf with extraordinary powers. Because of this, almost all the alphas of Eclipse Pack since the prophecy have openly or secretly had a lover from Moonshadow Pack, though none of the resulting children have shown any special abilities.”

I suddenly saw where this was going and had to swallow down the bile the realization brought.

“You think Elroy had sex with me to make this new werewolf?” I asked.

Iris would not, perhaps could not, meet my eyes.

Ines POV

I wasn’t sure why, exactly, that while Luna Olivia was talking about the White Paw Initiative, I couldn’t completely concentrate on her words.

This was the Luna (as in, “The Luna”) telling me about her latest efforts to help the Rogues I had lived with for years, and yet I wasn’t feeling involved in the conversation.

A beautiful alpha brunette walked into the room, and I for a moment I had tunnel vision. She filled up my every perception, which first alarmed me, but then as I adjusted I realized she just had incredible charisma.

So I was beyond flattered when she all but ignored Luna Olivia and made a beeline toward me.

“Ines!” she exclaimed as though she’d found treasure. I felt warm down to my toes.

She swept into the room. I could not think of it any other way. She was like some magnificent wolf who had gathered the powers of a bird of prey. I was instantly fixated on her and felt happy about it, until I noticed Olivia shifted slightly in her seat.

What was I doing? Olivia had saved my Pack. Who was this Emma alpha wolf?

“I couldn’t wait to meet you,” Emma said, her face beaming with genuine joy.

I smiled back and resisted the faint, faintly odd urge to embrace her.

“Is that so?” Olivia asked pleasantly.

Emma took a seat at the table and helped herself to a cup of coffee. It was lovely the way she didn’t wait for Olivia to serve her the way fuddy-duddy tradition demanded.

“As soon as I heard about the White Paw Initiative, I knew it was perfectly aligned with the work I’ve been doing for years,” Emma said. She smiled at me warmly. “I have several contacts overseas who will help relocate any of your people as you like.”

I was flattered, but I had to frown. “No one I know wants to leave Lunaris. They’re more interested in finding a place here.”

Emma laughed as though this were the wittiest thing she had heard, and I felt immensely flattered. Before I could worry about that feeling, however, she told me, “That’s exactly my point. Nothing makes a pack want a wolf more than knowing another pack wants them. I can help with that.”

I nodded eagerly.

“Now, as I see it,” Emma said, “we need to concentrate on omegas who have not been reunited properly with their families or otherwise established a new household. Also, many have filed suit against alphas and betas who abused them.”

“And omegas,” Olivia said quietly.

Emma frowned at her.

“Some omegas harmed the omegas in White Paw,” Olivia said. “Any wolf who harmed any of the wolves in White Paw must be held accountable.”

Emma waved a hand vaguely. “The point is that we must help those with legitimate claims with whatever legal help we can offer.”

I nodded, though part of me didn’t like the way she phrased that.

“Surely all of them have legitimate claims in some respect, considering they were driven from the Pack,” Olivia said.

Emma waved her hand again. “There will be some who had mitigating circumstances and some whose cases are weaker. We should start with the strongest cases with clear discrimination.”

“I think you mean abuse,” Olivia said, which irritated me.

“Your own husband was one of those,” Emma said earnestly and as though Olivia hadn’t spoken. “I know he ran from authorities when you revealed his actions, and I haven’t been able to find him.”

I had sworn never to speak of him again. I told her without hesitation, “He was killed in an alley two days after I gave that interview.”

Emma nodded solemnly. “It sickens me to know that human sex trafficking was ever legal in Lunaris.” She looked at Olivia, and there was blame in her eyes. “Such a thing can never be excused.”

“I’m sure I agree,” Olivia said, which sounded quite weak to me, considering the subject matter.

“I saw human trafficking in Katj Territory,” Emma said next. “I have never been so revolted. It can never happen here again.”

“We don’t have a problem with human trafficking here,” Olivia said.

“Are you sure?” I said in challenge. The Luna looked at me with wounded eyes.

A knock sounded at the door. A beta servant whose name I didn’t know stuck his head inside.

“Luna?” he asked.

Olivia looked startled but smiled.

“Yes?”

“You are needed.”

She frowned but stood up, nodded at me and Emma, and left the room.

Emma waited until she was gone, then looked at me earnestly.

“I hope you will forgive me,” she said. “But I can see you carry your injuries still.”

I didn’t know how to answer that and just looked at her.

“If I may?” she asked. Then she reached for me, and a silver light filled the room. I felt pain and relief at the same time.

When the light cleared, the lashes on my back and the pain eased in my wrist where my husband had once broken bone.

I sat there, stunned. Emma smiled.

I felt the enormity of my debt to her, but I didn’t know if I liked it or loved it.

Or if I hated it. And her.