Calder.
Even old, stone-blooded Lydia.
She folds her hands and says, quiet as a grave: “The blood remembers.”
I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding.
Maya turns to me, eyes wide. I give her a nod. Barely a smile. Just enough.
Dad raises his voice one final time.
“Then it is done. The pack recognizes the bond between Bolton Sharpe and Maya Ortiz. The future Luna is named.”
“Wait.”
Cassie.
She steps forward from the far edge of the room, where she’s been half-wrapped in shadow, silent until now. Her posture is rigid, her eyes sharper than ever, gleaming under the firelight like ice catching flame.
“This isn’t right,” she says, louder now, her voice tight and clear. “You can’t just name her Luna and expect the rest of us to pretend she belongs.”
The room stills again, tension leaping back into every bone.
Dad’s head turns. “You speak out after the vote?”
Cassie doesn’t drop her gaze. “I didn’t speak sooner because I thought you’d come to your senses.” Her voice cracks just slightly, but she powers through. “She’s not one of us. She wasn’t raised by this pack. She doesn’t know our laws. She shifted once, and now we’re supposed to kneel?”
“She didn’t ask for you to kneel,” I say, stepping forward, voice low and edged. “She didn’t ask for anything. She stood in the circle. She bled for the bond. And you lost, Cassie.”
Cassie’s lip curls. “Because she got lucky.”
“No,” Maya says, cool and steady. “Because I was ready.”
Cassie turns sharply to her. “You don’t know what it means to be Luna. You think surviving one challenge makes you worthy? That a bond makes you unstoppable?”
Before Maya can speak, my dad, using his alpha’s voice, cuts like frost through flame.
“Cassie.”
Her name alone stills the room. The finality in it is unmistakable.
She flinches—but only just. “Alpha, I’m speakingtruth.”
“You are speaking disrespect,” he replies, voice low but thrumming with restrained command. “This council has voted. The pack has witnessed. The moon has marked. And still, you question the will of what is greater than all of us?”
Cassie stiffens, jaw flexing. “I won’t apologize for defending the pack’s traditions.”
“The pack’s traditions,” Alpha Sharpe says, stepping forward, “do not include tantrums in place of honor.”
A few heads turn, eyes darting between the two.
“You fought,” he continues, every word crisp. “You challenged. And you lost. That should have been the end. But instead, you let your pride speak louder than your duty.”
Cassie opens her mouth, but he holds up a hand.
“If you were prepared to be Luna, you would have known when to yield with grace. You would have known when to stand down with dignity.” His voice sharpens. “Instead, you try to sow division in front of the very people you claimed to be ready to lead.”
The echo of those words wraps around the room.
