Chapter 149

Ava

The council chamber was thick with tension, and the hot air seeping in through the open window did nothing to dissipate it as we filed in and took our seats. I caught Elise’s narrowed eyes boring holes into my head, causing me to shift uncomfortably in my chair.

Chris, noticing this, reached over to give my hand a reassuring squeeze beneath the table.

“Shall we proceed with the first order of business?” Elder Bradley’s reedy voice broke the silence. “We must nominate a new Elder to join our council.”

There were murmurs of assent around the long table. I bobbed my head along with them, keeping my gaze averted—if only to avoid Elise’s seething hatred from across the table. Chris cleared his throat and rose to his feet.

“I have been considering this, and I believe we should nominate Paul,” he announced. “Paul has devoted over sixty years of service to our pack as headmaster of the school. His integrity and wisdom are unparalleled.”

Across the table, Fatima scoffed quietly. “The stuffy old headmaster?” she quipped. “Are you certain he would… fit in here?”

“I can think of no one in this pack who is more qualified to fill Degas’s chair,” Chris stated firmly, silencing her protests with a sharp look.

The other Elders exchanged weighted glances. Finally, Elder Claire inclined her head with a nod.

“Paul has indeed proven himself a loyal and dedicated member of our community,” she said. “I see no issue with having him join our council.”

One by one, the remaining Elders voiced their agreement. Even Elise couldn’t seem to muster a viable objection, simply folding her hands in her lap and nodding along with the others.

“It’s settled, then,” Bradley declared once the vote was tallied. “We will hold a formal ceremony next week to induct Paul as our newest Elder.”

A brief lull fell over the chamber as the Elders shuffled their papers and took sips of their tea—tea that I had prepared myself in the hopes of softening their ire toward me. Although, the atmosphere remained tense.

Finally, Elise apparently could no longer contain herself. She slammed her palms on the table, making me jump.

“There is one more matter that simply cannot be ignored,” she announced, her eyes flickering between Chris and me. “The matter of Degas’s final prophecy.”

A stunned silence rippled through the room. Chris and I exchanged a loaded look, both of us recognizing this was the moment we had been dreading. All eyes turned to Chris and me expectantly. I felt heat creep up the back of my neck, panic cloying in my throat.

To his credit, Chris didn’t so much as flinch. He simply rose once more, commanding the room’s attention effortlessly.

“Ava and I did bear witness to Degas’s final words,” he replied in a surprisingly measured tone. He turned to me then. “Ava, would you mind…?”

I swallowed hard, part of me wanting to stay mute—but I couldn’t beneath the gazes of Chris and all four Elders. Clearing my throat, I softly stated, “His prophecy was this: ‘The True Luna will bring the five packs into a new era of modernity. All five packs will never be the same in her wake.’”

A deafening silence followed my words, one that was so thick and heavy I thought it might take the entire building down. I tensed, bracing myself for the backlash that was sure to come from these deeply traditional Elders—for a prophecy to involve anyone other than the Alpha was simply unheard of. And, given everything else that was going on recently…

Well, anyone could see why I had been hesitant to tell them about it.

Sure enough, Elise was the first to erupt. “That’s simply absurd!” she cried, shooting me a venomous glare. “That you would insert yourself into this prophecy, Ava, and claim to be this so-called ‘True Luna’—”

“That’s enough,” Chris cut her off, his voice hardly more than a growl. “Ava did not insert herself anywhere. I was there when he spoke those words, and she repeated them verbatim—unless you’re implying that I’m a liar, too?”

Elise’s mouth snapped shut, her eyes flashing dangerously. An uneasy murmur filled the chamber as the other Elders processed these startling words.

Finally, Fatima removed her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose warily. “A ‘True Luna’?” she murmured. “One that would herald the packs into a new era?”

“How very strange,” Bradley mused, running his hands first through his hair and then over his weary face. “Unprecedented…”

“Impossible is what it is!” Elise retorted hotly. “The Alphas have always led our packs, not their Lunas. Not in this capacity.”

“Perhaps the times are changing, Elise,” Claire said thoughtfully. “If Degas spoke those words with his dying breath, we would be fools to dismiss them so readily.”

The heated debate continued to rage, with Elise vehemently denying the validity of Degas’s prophecy, while Fatima and Claire seemed more open to its implications—no matter how unorthodox. Meanwhile, Bradley just seemed both confused and concerned.

Chris and I remained silent throughout all of this, letting Elise tire herself out. Truthfully, I was grateful for the reprieve to collect my own whirling thoughts.

Could it really be me that Degas was referring to? This... ‘True Luna’ destined to reshape the packs forever?

I couldn’t deny the fact that it had already occurred to me within the days following his death; I kept thinking back to that day all those weeks ago, right after I had saved those two Omega girls from Olivia. The hand sign that the one girl had made over her chest… The way that she referred to me as ‘Luna’ no matter how much I tried to correct her…

Before I could contemplate it further, however, Chris rapped his knuckles on the table and cut through the squabbling.

“Enough!” he barked. “You’re all getting ahead of yourselves. What would Degas think if he knew you were fighting like a bunch of schoolchildren?”

A tense hush fell over the chamber as all eyes turned toward Chris.

“Alpha Chris is right,” Fatima sighed. “Prophecies are meant to be riddles, meant to be dissected; we know now that at some point in the future, a ‘True Luna’ will emerge and help unite the five packs under a more progressive mindset. That is all.”

“Indeed,” Bradley replied with a nod. “Let us not shoot the messenger. Dear Ava surely didn’t intend to…”

I quickly shook my head. “I would hope that you would all trust by now, Elders, that I would never change the words of a prophecy to suit my own desires.”

Fatima, Claire, and Bradley nodded. Chris relaxed slightly beside me. Elise, however, looked fit to burst. “You cannot seriously be entertaining this madness—”

“We are entertaining nothing but the truth,” Chris interjected. “I believe it was you, Elise, who insisted on the last prophecy being fulfilled—surely you wouldn’t seek not to fulfill this one as well.”

Elise opened her mouth, her face as red as a fresh tomato, but seemed to think better of protesting. With a huff, she leaned back and crossed her arms across her chest.

The meeting soon adjourned after that, with the Elders filing out in silence, no doubt mentally dissecting Degas’s puzzling words. I lingered behind, still quite shaken by the events that had transpired.

As silence fell over the vacant chamber, I turned to find Chris studying me closely, concern furrowing his brow.

“You’re awfully quiet,” he murmured, reaching out to tuck a stray lock of hair behind my ear. “What’s on your mind, Luna?”

I swallowed, and when I spoke, my voice was hardly more than a whisper. “Do you think... I could really be the True Luna?”