Chapter 182: Derek Is Alive. I Am Not Taking His Mate.

There is a specific silence that follows after a father proposes to breed his daughter with his son. No one was saying the daughter-and-son part out loud.

The High Luna decided to call that out, just in case anyone missed the subtext.

"Let us drop one pretense while we are being honest in this room. Every person seated at this table knows Nova is Starborne’s bastard, and we have all been politely declining to say so. The girl’s value is high enough that he is willing to go head to head with the High Elders Council and the Helix Repopulation Mandate rules." She swept the table with a look. "But incest aside, Grandson, if you want to try Celeste Starborne without a war, there you have it. He has handed you the price himself."

"Incest aside," Alpha Thunderfang repeated.

The High Luna waved it off. "Semantics for effect, dear. Obviously we aren’t returning her. Whatever that girl carries in her blood, Lucian Starborne wants it badly enough to have his son sire an heir with his sister. Give him Princess Celeste and let’s call it done."

Nova sat very still and considered the fact that ’incest aside’ was now a phrase that existed and the fact that the SS Celeste was going down bow-first and the High Luna was already in the lifeboat, waving. The same woman who had thrown a wine glass in the fire last night in Celeste’s honor.

Freya spoke for the first time. Every head turned towards her.

"The Helix Elders’ Council is doing more than demanding her return," she stated. "They are currently moving to redact Derek’s claim to her and the pairing. The Elderwood Alpha has offered five hundred million for Nova, for his own son, who has only just come of age, to Starborne and to Thunderfang both. Openly. Because apparently this is the new normal."

Freya slid a knowing look down the table at the High Luna. The High Luna folded her hands serenely, radiating the innocence of a woman who would do no such thing.

The words washed over Nova and she felt nothing because five hundred million sounded very large and abstract. It didn’t feel real. But a son siring an heir with his sister, and her being the sister in that statement? What the actual fuck. That one was the winner for the most disturbing thing of the day. What could possibly be worse than incest?

Nova was about to learn in real time that incest was not, in fact, the most fucked thing that would be said in this war room today.

One more was coming right on up, gift-wrapped by the High Luna.

"Thunderfang already has claim on that blood. Derek staked it, and a coma doesn’t void a claim. But if they are going to press on Derek being out, then so be it. We have a spare Thunderfang who already carries her everywhere. A child voids every offer at the table. She cannot carry Kai Starborne Jr. or Donald Elderwood Jr. if the womb is already occupied by a Landon Thunderfang Jr. If my grandson doesn’t wake, then my other grandson can put an heir in her before the week is through. Problem solved."

Nova, who had chosen that moment to take a sip of water, choked so hard Maria had to pat her back.

"Astra already confirmed she is fit enough to carry a child. And here is the useful part for the room, because I did not know this: slaves don’t have heats due to the silver. They have monthly cycles instead, which makes them considerably easier to breed than a proper she-wolf. Ironic, given where slaves rank on the fertility scoring system at the Moonfire. A true heat cycle comes once maybe twice a year if you are lucky and does not guarantee a pup. Her cycle is coming up, actually. So now is when we act, before the High Council gets any more ideas."

The room had a rainbow of reactions at this.

The head elder pinched the bridge of his nose. Freya shot Dante an ’I told you so’ look, the kind wives had been giving their husbands since the dawn of time.

Alpha Thunderfang closed his eyes. Next to him, Tavian squinted at the High Luna. Rubbed his eyes. Yes, that was her alright.

Nova’s face was bright red and it had nothing to do with choking on her water and everything to do with her monthly cycle being discussed at the holo table in a war room by a woman who called her Nancy over twenty times the night prior.

The High Luna leaned back in her seat, unhurried, the posture of a queen about to explain something obvious to a room full of people she loved and did not entirely respect.

"Oh, come off it. If Derek wakes, she can still be Derek’s mate. She’ll have his next—" She glanced at Nova, still coughing. "It’s a compliment. Do you know how many women would kill to have a Thunderfang in their womb? You do. Celeste tried to, and she didn’t even make the short list. I’ve already had the east wing nursery drawings pulled. You’re welcome."

One of the younger captains glanced around, found the whole table already reacting to that, and settled for staring hard at the holo-table.

The table buzzed like a kicked beehive for a ten seconds. Then Alpha Thunderfang cut it off.

"Enough."

Alpha Thunderfang leaned forward, his forearms coming to rest on the holo-table, and looked at his grandmother with the patience of a man who had let her run exactly as far as he intended to.

"Derek is alive. I am not going to take his mate out from under him while he can’t sit up. You raised me better than that, Gran. And let me debunk any other rumors right now. Thunderfang protects our own. Nova is a person at my table. Whether she carries a child or not does not affect the protection she gets. Nor does it with any other new mate in our pack."

The High Luna’s eyes stayed on Landon a beat, mild and unmoved.

"Understood, grandson. But on the topic of new mates. The Helix High Council has also begun redacting pairings from the Moonfire itself. They are starting at the top and working down. As of this morning, the Beta Luna and Gamma Luna pairings are the ones under discussion."