She shifts slightly but keeps her gaze steady. “Not exactly. I figured this might be about… the challenge.”
“Because of Cassie?” the Alpha asks, voice unreadable.
Maya nods once. “It caused a stir. I thought maybeyou’reyou were deciding if I broke some rule by accepting it.”
He studies her for a long beat.
“That’s not exactly what’s at stake,” he says finally.
The air tightens.
Maya glances at me, uncertain now. “Then… why am I here?”
Dad turns toward the council, finally addressing the question that’s been simmering beneath the silence. “Because the pack needs to understand who you are—and what it means that you’re mated to Bolton.”
Maya’s fingers tighten at her sides. “You’re asking whether I belong.”
A pause. Her voice steadies.
“You want to know if I’m loyal. If I’m smart enough to learn your laws. Strong enough to survive a challenge. If I threaten your order just by existing—as someone who isn’t only one thing.”
No one speaks.
She breathes once, then continues, her voice sharp as drawn steel. “You want to know if I’m dangerous.”
“She speaks plainly,” Marnie murmurs.
“She speaks truth,” my father replies.
Maya lifts her chin. Firelight flickers off her cheekbone as she meets their gaze.
“I didn’t come here for a rank. I didn’t ask for a title. But I bled in your ring. I shifted beneath the moon that’s claimedme from the beginning, even when I didn’t know why. And I stood beside your heir. Not because I was told to, or because fate demanded it, but because my wolf recognized his before I even knew she existed.”
Silence. Thicker than before.
And in it, I feel everything my wolf feels: pride, power, hunger. A need to protect her, to tear down anything that rises against her.
But she doesn’t need protection.
Not from this room.
“I won’t pretend to be something I’m not,” she says. “I wasn’t raised among you. I don’t know all your rules. But I won’t run. And I won’t break. If you think I’m a threat, it’s because you’re not looking hard enough.”
She’s breathing harder now. But her stance doesn’t falter.
My wolf presses against my skin, all heat and steel and fire.
Dad studies her, like he’s seeing a story written in blood across her face.
“You carry legacy in your veins and strength in your defiance. Both matter.”
He turns to the council.
“My vote is cast. Let the bond stand. Let the Luna rise.”
One by one, nods pass around the circle.
Marnie.
