Chapter 55: Your Mate Is Important To Us

Celeste looked at Maverick and Nova and her soul visibly left her body. Her head whipped to the elders.

"Emberclaw? You’re matching me with the Alpha who just offered one hundred million for her. Please tell me this is a joke."

The umbrella elder didn’t so much as blink. "The flame spoke. The elders confirmed. The match stands. That is the order of operations and it has never been reversed."

"The flame," Celeste repeated. "The flame gave me silver. There are other available silvers in this crowd. The one you assigned me is—" She glanced at Maverick, gagged, then gestured at him like he was a zoo exhibit. "—the one who is currently cradling my property like she’s a newborn and he just discovered fatherhood."

"Please go join the Emberclaw section so we may wrap up the ceremony, Princess."

Celeste glanced at the Thunderfang section, then at the Emberclaw section, then back at the elder panel. "I cannot do that with a clean conscience, Elder. Please check your tablets again. It appears Emberclaw already has a Luna in silver."

"He does not have a Luna, princess," the head elder replied. "A slave is not going to be Luna. That title will still be yours."

She took a steadying breath, calming her voice in a herculean effort.

"Fated matches can’t be assigned mates. Every other match in this clearing has been honored. But you are not honoring an Alpha’s? He just announced she is his fated mate to every Alpha here and is currently burying his face in her head like she’s a scented candle. I have EYES, Elder. Thunderfang is available. The packs are similar in size. Both are non-slave packs. Same influence. It makes no difference on paper which one I am assigned to."

The logic was sound. Air-tight.

"Thunderfang?" one of the Elders asked, dumbfounded.

"Yes, Elder. Thunderfang."

The head elder nodded slowly. "There is an available Thunderfang without an assignment."

"Thank you," Celeste said, with the composure of a woman who had just won an argument she never should have had to make.

The elders worked on their tablets in silence, like this was some complicated process.

"Celeste Starborne is matched with Derek Thunderfang," the head elder announced after a minute.

Across the clearing, Derek Thunderfang didn’t move. His face stayed perfectly blank, almost as if he were counting down from five and found this mildly entertaining.

"THAT IS NOT WHAT I ASKED FOR!" Celeste’s voice hit a register that caused birds to fly out of the trees in the forest. "I said THUNDERFANG. I meant the ALPHA. The one running the pack. Not the second-place-used model with the attitude problem and the missing cloak."

"The cloak is on your slave, actually," Derek called across the clearing. "So technically you do have it. You’re welcome."

"I am a princess," Celeste stated. "Pair me with the other Thunderfang. He doesn’t have a match."

"Alpha Thunderfang is currently listed as assigned in our records. Reassigning a match requires a retrieval request, formal review, a notarized petition from three priestesses, a panel vote, and a minimum fourteen-day processing period."

"You just reassigned ME," Celeste said flatly. "Just now. You all were on your tablets. Do that again."

"Correct, Princess. We did because Derek did not have a match. Landon is already paired."

"Paired with WHO? Because whoever she is, I outrank her. That’s not arrogance. That’s genealogy."

The elder shuffled through his tablet with the urgency of a man who was being put on the spot and following the protocol.

"Your rank is equal, Princess. The original matching designation for the Thunderfang Alpha was Princess Maria Emberclaw."

Celeste pinched the bridge of her nose. Looked at her father, who gave her zero support. Looked at her brother, who was on his holo-feed. Looked at Landon in the Thunderfang section, who was too busy to apparently make eye-contact with his future Luna. Looked at Derek, who was thoroughly entertained.

"Maria Emberclaw is fated and paired with the Thunderfang Beta," she stated slowly, the verbal equivalent of writing it on a whiteboard and underlining it twice. "Do you see her right there? She was the first princess to get her mate."

All eyes landed on Maria Emberclaw. The Thunderfang Beta had his lips on her hair and glanced up like a man who had forgotten he was in public and was just caught.

The head elder looked up from his tablet.

"As we stated earlier, every match made after 7709’s arrival is suspect. Maria Emberclaw’s fated pairing falls under that review. Her assignment to Alpha Thunderfang stands."

"THERE IS NO REVIEW. HE IS FATED TO HER."

"Until this council determines whether tonight’s fated revelations are legitimate or the result of interference, no assigned match will be overridden. Maria Emberclaw stays with Alpha Thunderfang."

"The Moonfire is about equality," Celeste countered. "I have been put at a disadvantage. I am the only draftee present that did not get a wolf from the sacred flame."

"Per my last statement, all fated matches are under review so you need not worry, princess," the elder replied. "This panel has already given you extra time here because you have waited the longest. But this ceremony already has gone an hour past schedule and I think we can all agree that it is time to finish this and get inside. Please join your match so we may wrap things up."

"I refuse the match."

"Refusal is grounds for Lottery assignment, Princess."

"Then I’ll take the Lottery."

Every wolf in the clearing turned to look at her. The elder raised an eyebrow.

Somewhere between Celeste’s mouth and the elder’s response, her father intervened like a man swatting a fly off a contract.

"She will not be taking the Lottery," Starborne said. "Assign her to the Thunderfang Alpha or reassign her to the Emberclaw Alpha. I don’t care which."

"The existing match—"

"Is with a woman who is fated to his Beta. Everyone in this clearing saw it. Everyone in this clearing knows it. The only people pretending otherwise are the ones holding tablets. You want to review fated matches? Review them. But do not hold my daughter’s future hostage to your filing backlog."

"Alpha Starborne, with respect—"

"You’ve shown my daughter very little of that tonight, Elder. She waited the longest. She was reassigned in thirty seconds without consultation. And now you’re telling her it requires fourteen days and a committee." He stepped forward. "My daughter is a Starborne. The system was built for families like mine. If it can’t accommodate a reassignment that every wolf here knows is correct, then the system isn’t functioning and I will be the one to say so. Publicly. With documentation."