Chapter 14: Council of Wolves
The silence in the boardroom was absolute, broken only by the ragged breaths of the kneeling wolves and the low hum of the city thirty stories below. Sera stood, her palms still flat on the cool tabletop, the last golden embers of that impossible light fading from her skin. Her heart hammered against her ribs, a wild, trapped thing.
Every head was bowed. Every spine bent. The older Alpha, Landon, was trembling, whether from rage or the forced submission she couldn’t tell.
Elias moved. He didn’t kneel. He walked around the table, his footsteps measured on the polished concrete floor. He stopped beside her chair, his hand coming to rest on the back of her neck, a possessive, steadying weight. His touch broke the spell.
“Rise,” he said, his voice cutting through the stillness.
It was like watching statues come to life. Slowly, stiffly, the council members pushed themselves up from the floor. Avoided her eyes. The humiliation in the room was a living thing, sour and thick. Landon gripped the edge of the table, his knuckles white.
“You see,” Elias continued, conversational, as if discussing quarterly reports. “The matter is settled. You have concerns about succession? About stability? Look at her.” His fingers tightened just slightly on Sera’s neck. “There is your stability. There is your future. Any further… debate… on her legitimacy is a challenge to my authority. And we all know how I handle those.”
Landon finally looked up, his face a mask of controlled fury. “This is unprecedented, Elias. She’s an unmated omega who walked in here an hour ago.”
“She is a mated Luna who just put you on your knees,” Marcus corrected calmly from his post by the door. He hadn’t kneeled either, Sera realized. He’d inclined his head, a gesture of deep respect, but he’d remained standing. A Beta’s subtle defiance, supporting his Alpha’s mate without surrendering his own station. “The precedent is set. I’d suggest we move to practicalities.”
“Practicalities.” A sharp-faced woman named Anya, the pack’s head of finances, spat the word. She smoothed her suit jacket with jerky movements. “The practicalities are a nightmare. Her background is a ghost story. No known lineage. No pack affiliation for the last five years. She’s a security risk wrapped in a liability waiver.”
Sera felt the words like little knives. This was what he’d warned her about. The ammunition.
“My background is my business,” Sera said, her voice quieter than she wanted, but clear. “Elias has accepted it. That’s all that matters.”
“Is it?” Anya’s gaze flickered to Elias, calculating. “When the safety of the entire pack is at stake? When our allies will demand to know who stands beside you? They will dig, girl. And when they find the holes, the empty spaces, what then?”
“Then they will deal with me,” Elias growled. The room temperature seemed to drop. “You are mistaking my mate for a topic of committee discussion. She is not. The vote you were attempting to force is irrelevant. There is no vote. The Luna is recognized. The next person who questions her presence in this pack, in my life, will answer to my wolf directly. Are we understood?”
It wasn’t a question. It was a verdict.
One by one, the council members dipped their chins in reluctant acknowledgment. The fight bled out of the room, replaced by a sullen, simmering acquiescence.
“Good.” Elias removed his hand from Sera’s neck. “Marcus will schedule individual briefings with each of you on Luna Sera’s integration into pack security and public functions. Dismissed.”
No one moved for a moment, stunned by the abruptness. Then, like marionettes with cut strings, they gathered tablets, pens, dignity, and filed out. The heavyset man, Gerald, shot Sera a look she couldn’t decipher—not hatred, more a deep, wary curiosity. Landon didn’t look at her at all.
Anya was the last to leave. At the door, she paused, turning back. Her eyes, a cold grey, locked on Sera. “That little light show was impressive. Truly. But power is more than a flash. It’s endurance. We’ll see how long you burn.”
The door clicked shut behind her.
The moment it closed, the strength leeched out of Sera’s legs. She sank into the leather chair, a tremor starting deep in her core.
“Hey.” Elias was in front of her in an instant, kneeling, his hands on the arms of her chair, caging her in. His silver eyes scanned her face. “Look at me. You’re alright.”
“I feel like I just ran a marathon and got hit by a truck,” she whispered.
“That’s about right.” A flicker of something like pride warmed his gaze. “What you did… Sera, that hasn’t been seen in generations. An Alpha glow manifesting in a newly recognized Luna? It’s myth. It’s pure, undiluted dominance. You didn’t just ask for their respect. You commanded their biology.”
“It didn’t feel like command. It felt like… a sneeze. A really violent, overwhelming sneeze I couldn’t hold back.”
A rough chuckle escaped him. He leaned forward, resting his forehead against hers. The bond hummed, a steadying current. “My fierce, strange mate.”
Marcus cleared his throat softly from across the room. “Sir. We should relocate to your office. The walls here have ears, and the council will be regrouping in the hall. Their submission is temporary. They’re already calculating.”
Elias pulled back, the moment broken. He stood, offering Sera his hand. She took it, letting him pull her up. She was steadier now.
Elias’s office was a darker, more personal space. Floor-to-ceiling windows, a massive desk of raw-edged oak, shelves lined with books that looked actually read. It smelled like him—sandalwood, iron, cold night air.
Marcus closed the door, engaging a lock with a solid thunk. “Security sweep is clean.”
Sera walked to the window, looking out at the sprawling city. “They’re right, you know. Anya. About my past. It’s a problem.”
“It’s my problem to solve,” Elias said, coming to stand beside her. He didn’t touch her, but his presence was a solid wall. “Tell me what I need to know. No more shadows.”
She took a deep breath. This was the ledge. “My family was from a small, traditional pack north of here. The Stone River Pack. My father was an Alpha, but a weak one. More interested in alliances than strength. There was a challenge. A violent one. Led by a wolf named Silas.”
Elias went very still. “Silas Greene?”
She nodded, staring at the distant river. “You know the name.”
“I know of him. A mercenary. Takes over failing packs for a price. Brutal, but effective. His methods are… extralegal.”
“His method was killing my parents in their bed and declaring the pack under new management.” The words were ash in her mouth. “I was seventeen. I ran. I’ve been running ever since. I took false papers, odd jobs, stayed in city centers where pack scent gets lost. I thought if I was quiet enough, small enough, he’d forget about the daughter who got away.”
“He hasn’t,” Marcus stated from behind the desk. It wasn’t a question.
“No. A year ago, I caught scent of one of his enforcers in the city where I was working as a waitress. I left that night. That’s how I ended up here, taking the first corporate job that didn’t require a pack reference.” She finally looked at Elias. “You asked why an omega would work in a place like this. That’s why. It was a fortress. I thought I could hide in plain sight.”
Elias’s face was carved from stone. “You are not hiding anymore.”
“Silas will see the news,” Marcus said quietly. “When you formally announce her as Luna. He’ll know where she is. He may see her as a loose end. Or he may see her as leverage against you.”
A cold, dark fury unfolded through the bond, so potent it stole Sera’s breath. Elias’s silver eyes glinted with a predatory light. “Let him try.” He turned to Marcus. “I want a file on Silas Greene and everything he’s touched in the last ten years. I want to know his allies, his bank accounts, his favorite fucking brand of whiskey. He is now the pack’s primary external concern.”
“Understood.”
Elias focused back on Sera. “You are not a liability. You are a prize. And he is a dead man for touching what was yours. What is now mine to protect.” He cupped her face, his thumb stroking over her cheekbone. “No more running. You stand here. With me.”
The promise in his words was absolute, a shelter built of sheer, unbreakable will. For the first time since she was seventeen, the constant, background hum of fear quieted. It was replaced by something more dangerous: hope.
The intercom on Elias’s desk buzzed. His secretary’s voice, tense. “Mr. Varga. I have a Mr. Greene on line one. He says it’s urgent, regarding a… personal matter.”
The air in the room froze solid.
Elias didn’t move his hand from Sera’s face. His gaze held hers, a silent question. A silent command.
She took a shuddering breath and gave a single, sharp nod.
He walked to the desk, pressed the speakerphone button. “Elias Varga.”
“Elias!” The voice that filled the room was jovial, warm, and utterly false. It was the voice of a man who enjoyed games. “I hear congratulations are in order. Found yourself a Luna. And such a interesting one. Seraphina Rossi. Quite the journey she’s had.”
Sera’s blood ran cold.
“What do you want, Greene?” Elias’s voice was flat, disinterested.
“Just to offer my felicitations. And a piece of advice, between Alphas. Some treasures come with… unresolved tariffs. I’d hate to see your new era start with a conflict. Perhaps we can settle old accounts. Clean slate.”
“There is no account between you and me.”
“But there is between me and the girl,” Silas replied, the smile still in his voice. “A matter of pack law. Of succession. She is, technically, the last living heir of a pack I now lead. Her place, by the old ways, is with her pack.”
Elias’s lip curled. “She is with her pack. You’re speaking to her Alpha. The only one she recognizes.”
A beat of silence. The false warmth vanished. “I’ll be in touch, Varga. Give my best to Sera.”
The line went dead.
The silence stretched, heavy and charged.
Marcus broke it. “He’s laying a claim. Using tradition as a weapon. He’ll take this to the broader Alpha Council, try to force a hearing.”
Elias stared at the phone, his expression terrifyingly calm. “Let him. He just made it personal.” He looked at Sera, the storm in his eyes settling into a glacial resolve. “It seems the world won’t wait for us to catch our breath.”
He came back to her, stopping close enough that she had to tilt her head up. “Are you afraid?”
She thought about it. The fear was there, old and ingrained. But underneath it, warmer and brighter, was the golden glow, the feel of his hand on her neck, the silent strength of the man before her. “Yes,” she said honestly. “But not for me. For him.”
That finally broke through his control. A real, sharp smile touched his mouth, the one that promised violence. “Good.” He brushed his lips against hers, a whisper of a kiss. “Now he should be.”