Chapter 22. Connives

The meeting went on and on, stretching far longer than I had anticipated, until the air in the room itself seemed heavy with ambition and unspoken motives. Every person present had something to say about the instructions my father had left behind, and not one of them spoke purely out of concern for the pack’s future. Their words were coated in politeness, but beneath that veneer lay selfish calculations, each of them probing for weaknesses, for loopholes they could exploit to bend the truth to their advantage.

I noticed it clearly in the way they framed their questions—how often they circled back to my relationship with Elena, how persistently they pressed about the peace treaties I had signed with neighboring packs. No one asked whether the treaties had saved lives or stabilized borders. Instead, they wanted to know who benefited, who lost influence, and whether those agreements could be undone in their favor.