Chapter 26

My footsteps echoed through the stone corridor, each footstep matching the pounding of my heart. The council room loomed ahead, its ornate wooden doors a silent sentinel guarding my fate.

Beside me, Elroy's face was a mask of concentration. His brow was furrowed in thought but I knew better than to hope for his support. He was a politician first, an ally second—if at all.

No, my defense was going to be up to me, and I tried to stay calm. It felt like I was being walked to my execution, but I tried to stomp that thought out. I was Eclipse’s Luna; they couldn’t act that rashly, no matter how bigoted they were.

It’s gonna be a fight, I thought to my wolf. I could feel her standing resolute, almost excited. Oh, she didn’t shrink away from confrontation, did she?

Good.

They can’t do anything too stupid, my wolf assured me, not when the pack law is against them. They’re going to throw a fit but ultimately you’re still right, and Elroy will back you up!

I didn’t bother replying; my skepticism was plain as day anyway.

We reached the threshold, Elroy's hand brushing the door handle. He held it open for me, like a gentleman, but leaned in like he wanted to murmur something in my ear. What was it, a warning? A threat?

Whatever it was, I didn’t feel like dealing with it. I swept past him without a glance, keeping my eyes—and attention—focused right where it needed to be.

The council members sat in a semicircle at the center of the room, all of them sitting ramrod straight and most of them frowning seriously. I felt their eyes on me like physical weight, but I refused to let it show. I’d faced worse than some glares.

"Luna Olivia," Elder Thornton's gravelly voice broke the silence. "I trust you understand why you've been summoned."

I inclined my head slightly. Here we go. "I imagine it's regarding my comments yesterday."

"Comments?" Councilwoman Hayes scoffed. "You mean your blatant disrespect for this council and its authority."

"With all due respect, Councilwoman, I merely quoted our own laws. If adhering to our pack's constitution is considered disrespect, then perhaps it's not my words that are the problem."

A low murmur rippled through the assembled elders, one of mostly shock and rage, but I felt suddenly strangely calm. My voice was steady as I continued.

"The law clearly states the minimum and maximum sentencing of each crime committed, and the punishment handed down by the council does not meet those stipulations. By overlooking the laws, this council is the one showing disrespect—to our traditions, to our values, and to the very foundations of Eclipse itself."

Eyes all across the tables narrowed, a few younger members loosing low, intimidating growls. They made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I didn’t flinch.

“Our?” Councilman Eller spat, throwing up quotation marks with his finger.

“Yes, our,” I said firmly. "I am a member of this pack, as decided upon by the Moon Goddess herself at my Luna ceremony, and that remains true regardless of personal feelings on the matter.”

I could see many of the council men and women grinding their teeth, unable to deny that truth no matter how much they wanted to. I kept talking, my voice ringing clearly in the chamber.

“Speaking out against injustice is not just a right, it is a duty. A duty held by all pack members, including you. That doesn’t change just because you’re the ones reaping the benefits.”

And just like that, the chamber broke into a racket of voices. I didn’t blink, and I didn’t listen. They were all the same things anyway, lots of ‘how dare’s and ‘baseless accusation’s and even the occasional ‘disgrace to Eclipse’s. None of it was surprising.

Until a stern voice broke through the noise. "I concur with our Luna."

My head snapped towards Elroy, my eyes widening in disbelief. I had truly believed he would be silent before the council, but he stood tall next to me, his posture resolute. My heart fluttered involuntarily.

"Our laws are not suggestions," Elroy continued. "They are the bedrock of our society, what sets us apart from other packs, and the legacy of those who came before us. I had assumed I could trust you to uphold that while I focused on solving this pack’s immediate needs.”

I tried to keep my surprise from my face, along with my questions. Immediate needs? Was Eclipse in a worse state than I thought when Elroy became Alpha?

And did that mean the council had been acting completely separately from the Alpha?

Elder Thornton growled. “Are you accusing this council of neglecting our duties?!”

“More like overreaching them,” Elroy snapped. “You exist to enforce the laws, not create them. It’s sad that your Luna has to point that out to you.”

“She is an outsider!” one councilman protested. The whole room smelled like agitated Alpha, and I wondered momentarily if I should release my aura to clear it out a little. “Luna or not, she has no right to criticize our pack structure.”

I saw my opening, and I stepped into it. "With all due respect," I interjected, my voice cutting through the din, "I may be new to Eclipse, but I’m also the only one here who truly understands how the world beyond Eclipse perceives us."

The room fell silent once more, all eyes on me.

"And I can tell you," I continued, my voice heavy with the weight of my words, "it's not a pretty picture. Our isolation has made us myopic. We cling to traditions without questioning their relevance or justice in a changing world."

My heart pounded as I scanned the room, taking in the mixture of shock, anger, and curiosity on the council members' faces. I didn’t have the guts to look at Elroy.

(Was he looking at me? Was he impressed, proud even, or was he staring at me in thinly veiled disgust? Why did it matter?)

"You think my origins make me less qualified to speak on Eclipse matters?" I challenged, my voice steady despite the way my palms were sweating. "You're wrong. My experience gives me a unique perspective that this pack desperately needs."

Thornton leaned forward, his eyes narrowing. "Enlighten us, then, on what we need.”

“We need to fix our image,” I said with conviction. “We have a reputation for being hotheaded, stubborn, and bigoted—I am not saying I agree with this assessment, but I am saying that it’s keeping us from cooperating with other packs to benefit our own.

“Blue Moon pack, for example, has made steady technological advancements that Eclipse hasn’t been privy to because of our reputation as uncooperative. These technologies could greatly increase quality of life for our pack members, and right now they’re technologies that Moonshadow has that we don’t.”

I was right to call on their competitive spirits, because I could tell the instant they started to feel intrigued. Most of them had probably never even heard of Blue Moon, since it was a smaller pack, but they were steadily growing in influence as their tech made it into other packs. And Eclipse was being left behind.

“The only reason you even know this is because you’re Moonshadow yourself,” Councilman Hague huffed.

"No," I cut him off, "I was Moonshadow. I am Eclipse. My connection to that pack no longer exists, they are no longer part of my identity, I hold no loyalty to them—my loyalty now is to my pack, to our pack, and I'm the only one who can change how the world looks at us."