I spent the night in a feverish, pain-filled haze. When morning finally came, the cramps had subsided, but the gnawing hunger was back with a vengeance, a hollow ache that echoed the emptiness of my situation. Simple acts of goodwill were being twisted into elaborate conspiracies. I couldn't win their trust by playing defense. I had to change the game.

My eyes fell upon the treasures littering the room. A jewelry box overflowing with necklaces, rings, and brooches. Wardrobes stuffed with silk and velvet gowns. Gilded statues and ornate vases. To the original Elara, these were symbols of her status. To me, they were currency.

A plan, desperate and audacious, began to form in my mind. I would sell these trinkets and buy what this pack truly needed: food, medicine, a future.

But I couldn't just walk into a human town. I was the Luna. My face was known, and my sudden appearance in a pawn shop would raise too many questions. I needed an intermediary, someone who moved in the shadows.

A memory, not my own, surfaced. A silver whistle, carved with the image of a raven, hidden in the back of a drawer. It was used to summon the pack's messenger, a wolf named Solwing who handled... discreet affairs.

I found the whistle and blew. The note was low and piercing, barely audible to my ears, but I knew it would travel. Moments later, a figure melted out of the shadows on my balcony, so silent I almost didn't see him. He was tall and slender, with a quiet, watchful intensity. He dropped to one knee, his head bowed.

"Luna," he murmured, his voice a dry rustle of leaves.

I didn't waste time. I had already selected several pieces of jewelry-valuable, but not so unique as to be instantly recognizable-and wrapped them in a square of velvet.

"Take these to the nearest human town," I commanded, my voice steadier than I felt. "Pawn them. Use the money to buy as much meat, bread, and basic medical supplies as you can carry. Bandages, antiseptic, pain relievers."

Solwing looked up, and for the first time, I saw a flicker of surprise in his dark, unreadable eyes. He was used to fetching luxuries for the Luna, not necessities.

"Be fast," I added. "And be discreet. No one is to know."

He gave a curt nod, took the velvet bundle, and was gone as silently as he had arrived.

The waiting was agony. Every creak of the floorboards outside my door sent a jolt of anxiety through me. Was this a mistake? Would Ryker see this as yet another move in a game he was determined to win?

I paced to the large window, peering out at the pack lands below. And then I saw him. A lone figure at the edge of the woods, leaning against the trunk of a massive oak. It was Kade, the boy whose name had appeared on my status panel. He looked thin and exhausted, a ghost haunting the edges of his own home. Even after the meal I'd inadvertently provided, years of hardship weren't erased overnight. He was an outcast, forbidden from setting foot in the Packhouse.

A sharp pang of something-pity, anger, responsibility-pierced through my own fear. It was monstrously cruel. This was his *family*.

In that moment, my plan solidified. It wasn't just about survival anymore. It was about fixing what was broken.

Solwing returned as dusk painted the sky in shades of bruised purple. He brought back more than I could have hoped for: several large crates of food, a well-stocked medical kit, and a small, heavy pouch of coins. I directed him to leave it all in my room and pressed a few of the gold coins into his hand as payment. The surprise in his eyes was back, wider this time.

I stared at the mountain of supplies. This was power. Real power. Not the cruel, arbitrary power the old Elara had wielded, but the power to heal, to provide, to unite. But if I just started handing it out, it would be seen as another bribe, another manipulation.

I needed to make a statement. Publicly. Officially.

"Solwing," I said, my voice firm. "Go to Alpha Ryker and his brothers. Inform them that the Luna is calling a pack meeting in the Great Hall. Effective immediately."

Only the Alpha or the Luna could convene the entire pack. It was a definitive, unignorable assertion of authority.

Solwing bowed and vanished once more.

I walked to my door and pulled it open. Zane was standing guard outside, his arms crossed, his expression a familiar mask of suspicion.

I looked past him, my voice ringing out in the stone corridor, loud enough for anyone nearby to hear.

"Go and bring Kade inside," I commanded. "His exile is over. As of right now."

Zane's jaw dropped. His eyes widened in stunned disbelief, the order so far outside the realm of his expectations that he couldn't seem to process it.

My gaze went to the darkening woods beyond the Packhouse walls, where I knew a lonely boy was shivering in the cold. I was going to fix this. And I was going to do it in front of them all.

Chapter 6

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