Kane POV
The envelope arrived at seven in the morning.
Gold seal. Heavy paper. The kind of formal that was designed to remind you exactly who had the power to summon and who had the obligation to appear. I knew what it was before I opened it the Alpha Council only used gold seals for one thing.
I broke the seal and read it standing at my desk.
The Autumn Summit. Fourteen days. Neutral territory at the Greywood Lodge. Attendance mandatory for all territory-holding Alphas.
I set it down.
Picked up my coffee. Thought about it.
The Summit happened every year. Last year I had sent Sable with a written statement and a proxy vote the civil war had been at its worst point, the pack was bleeding, I could not leave the territory without it fracturing completely. The Council had accepted the proxy with a politeness that meant they had filed the absence and were planning to use it.
Fourteen days. That was how long I had before I stood in front of forty Alphas and made the case that my missing a single summit was not an indication that the Duskmore pack was weakening, that my border territories were not up for renegotiation, and that the whispers about my leadership following the civil war were exactly that whispers, with no teeth.
Holt knocked and entered without waiting, which was his habit and one I had long since stopped trying to correct. My Beta was a large, straightforward wolf with very little patience for indirect communication, which made him excellent at his job and occasionally exhausting as a person.
He looked at the envelope. Looked at my face. "Summit?"
"Summit."
He dropped into the chair across from my desk without being invited. Also his habit. "Caspian will be there."
"Caspian is always there."
"Caspian sent a message yesterday," Holt said. "I was going to bring it to you after breakfast." He pulled a folded paper from his jacket and held it out.
I took it. Read it.
Short. Direct. Caspian's style he had always preferred bluntness as a form of intimidation, the way some wolves used silence. The message said he had heard about my recent acquisition. That a wolfless woman purchased at a black market auction was an unusual choice for an Alpha of my standing. That he looked forward to discussing standards of pack leadership at the Summit.
I folded it. Set it next to the Council summons.
Standards of pack leadership.
He was going to use Wren. Stand in front of the assembled Alphas and paint a picture of a broken, grief-damaged Alpha making questionable decisions. He had been building a case against me since the civil war this was just new material.
I needed to think about this carefully.
Holt was watching me. "We go, we defend the border territories, we handle Caspian. Standard Summit strategy." He paused. "I'll arrange accommodation. Six of us, travel light, back within five days."
"Seven," I said.
Holt's eyebrows moved. "Seven wolves? We don't usually bring more than "
"Seven people," I said. "You, me, Sable, Brennan, Cord, Mika." I looked at the Council summons. "And Wren."
Silence.
Holt had a very expressive silence. This one said he had questions and was choosing which one to ask first. "You want to bring the Ashvale girl to the Autumn Summit."
"Yes."
"The wolfless girl you purchased at a black market auction. To the gathering of every major Alpha on the eastern seaboard. Where Caspian Ironfang is planning to use your purchase of said girl to challenge your fitness to lead."
I looked at him.
"I'm just making sure I have the full picture," Holt said carefully.
"You have it."
"And your reasoning is "
"My reasoning is my own," I said.
Holt was quiet again. A different quiet this time the kind where he was doing calculations. He was good at calculations. It was why he was my Beta and not just my enforcer.
"Leaving her here creates a different problem," he said slowly, working through it. "If Caspian hears she stayed behind if he thinks you're hiding her, or that she's become a liability that's worse than bringing her."
"Yes."
"And if you bring her and control the narrative "
"Yes."
He thought about it another moment. "It's a risk."
"Everything is a risk."
He stood. "I'll arrange it." He was almost at the door before he stopped and turned back. "Kane. Does she know she's going?"
"Not yet."
"Does she know why?"
I picked up the Council summons and filed it in the correct folder. "Tell Sable to prepare her for travel. Appropriate clothing for a formal Summit, not staff clothing. She'll need "
"Kane."
I looked up.
Holt was watching me with the expression he wore when he was being careful. Patient. The expression he had worn exactly twice before once when I told him we were taking on the Harrow pack challenge without reinforcements, and once when I told him I was going to the auction alone.
"Why are you bringing her?" he said.
Storm pressed against my chest. One firm, deliberate press.
I held him flat.
"Because I said so," I said. "Tell Sable."
Holt left.
I sat at my desk in the quiet and did not examine the decision too closely. Examining it closely would require me to say certain things to myself that I was not prepared to say. Things about why the idea of leaving Wren in this pack house for five days while I was forty minutes away had produced a reaction in my chest that I had spent the last ten minutes making sure did not reach my face.
Storm was not pressing anymore.
He was doing something worse. He was settled deeply, quietly settled, the way he settled after a long run when everything was as it should be. The way he had not settled in over a year.
Because we were taking her with us.
Because I had made a decision that put us in the same vehicle and the same building for five days and Storm had understood that before I finished the sentence and was now sitting in my chest like a wolf who had gotten exactly what he wanted and was wise enough not to say anything about it.
I picked up Caspian's message. Read it once more.
Standards of pack leadership.
I thought about Wren in the breakfast hall on her first morning. The lowest seat. The last food. Forty wolves watching for the crack.
Chin up. Every bite eaten. Is there anything else, Alpha?
I thought about Caspian standing in front of the Summit, mouth full of implications and fabricated concern, and the look on his face when he realized what he was standing across from.
I put the message down.
For the first time in a very long time, Storm and I wanted exactly the same thing.