Chapter 56: Ex-Across-The-Room Eye Contact Avoidance

Three Alpha-blooded men stood around a holy fire, practicing the ancient art of ex-across-the-room-eye-contact-avoidance on the top draftee of the Moonfire with the dedication of men who would choose death over hello.

The top draftee was a silver-flamed princess who was currently staring one of them down with the intensity of a thousand suns.

All three wanted a slave instead. None of them wanted the princess. And the princess’s father owned the slave, which meant the fastest route to the woman they wanted ran directly through the woman they didn’t.

The trap was diabolical. Reject the princess? Starborne gets his war and sells his slave elsewhere. Accept the princess? Lose the slave.

The only thing they agreed on was the girl. The execution from here on out was every man for himself.

The first man was currently holding that slave in his arms and would die before letting her go. The second was holding his tongue and appreciating elder policies for the first time since this dumpster fire of a day started. The third was currently loading his mouth and about to machine gun facts like a goddamn professional at hot potato.

The princess’s father had just demanded that the elders pair her and the elders were frantically searching their tablets for a policy that would make this someone else’s problem.

"We hear you, Alpha Starborne," the head elder replied after a full minute. "The Emberclaw Alpha is being processed in our system for re-assignment. The Thunderfang Alpha has a match assigned already. The answer is the same. This panel will not override an assigned match tonight. Not for you. Not for any Alpha present. If we bend the process for Starborne, we bend it for everyone, and by morning there will be no process left to bend."

Before Starborne could respond, an uninvited voice walked into the conversation and went full automatic on every ear in the clearing.

"Problem with that, Elders," Derek Thunderfang began. "Emberclaw just announced to every person in this clearing that he is crowning a slave to be his Luna. Every Alpha with silver in his pack now has to deal with that precedent. Tonight she’s a cute little slave with a pretend matebond. Tomorrow she’s a symbol. Emberclaw is confusing what should be with what is. The distance between those two things has a body count."

Landon’s head turned to Derek, held for one second, and turned back to the fire. He knew that look. Whatever was about to come out of his brother’s mouth was going to win. It was also going to cost Landon something.

"There are only two options here." Derek held up one finger. "Option one: Alpha princess goes to Emberclaw as insurance that Emberclaw DOES NOT crown a slave. That is the only way to block that."

He held up a second finger. "Or, option two: Alpha princess comes to Thunderfang and brings her slave."

Derek looked past the elders to Alpha Starborne.

"I’ll match Emberclaw. One hundred million, Starborne. My brother takes your daughter as his Luna. Starborne climbs the ranks from ninth to co-first through marriage. 7709 stays a slave, assigned to Celeste, our future Luna, as her personal attendant, and to me as my mate. I am a bastard half-brother with no crown for her."

He let the clearing absorb the impact. Then he reloaded for another round.

"The slave stays a slave. Your daughter gets a crown. The twelve other slave packs stay happy." He held his hands out like a man prepared to accept payment in applause. "Everybody wins. Mostly me."

A muscle in Landon’s jaw fired so hard it could have powered a small generator. Probably due to the fact that he had been volunteered for a marriage by his brother and he couldn’t object to it without starting a war. Yeah. That’ll do it every time.

"They are negotiating a slave purchase on sacred ground," an Elder stated.

"They are."

"Can we stop them?"

"We tried. They ignored us."

"Should we try again?"

The umbrella elder took a drink out of his emotional support flask. "I would not."

"Problem with that, Thunderfang," Maverick called back calmly. "Starborne already has an alliance with Thunderfang through your or your brother’s marriage. He also now has Emberclaw through the sale. The two options you handed him give him only one alliance. I am handing him an option that comes with two alliances. He gives his daughter to you, and his slave to me. Two alliances. That’s arithmetic."

Derek’s eyebrows went up the way they go up when a man has heard something stupid and is deciding how much fun to have with it.

"Two alliances. Very impressive. I can count too. Watch." He held up one finger. "Thunderfang, the largest pack in Helix. That’s one. The only non-slave one." He added a second finger. "Windreach. That’s two." He started counting the rest off. "Elderwood. Frostveil. Ironblood. Lavamount. Prismheart. Venomhowl. Rainspire. Shimmerfall. Skyveil. Stonefall." He paused and wiggled his fingers at the elder panel. "For the kids in the back, those are the packs that hold slaves outside of Starborne."

The clearing was still counting. Maverick was already done. "You named twelve packs. I’ll name one. Mine. And mine is willing to stand alone on this. Can any of your twelve say the same?"

"You’ll stand alone. Wonderful. Brave. Incredibly stupid. But brave. The two aren’t mutually exclusive and you’re proving that in real time."

Derek was done using Maverick Emberclaw for target practice. Maverick could sit. Big boys now. Center of mass. He flashed that grin, the get-out-of-hell-free one, and spoke to the Alphas. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"There are twelve Alphas with slaves in this clearing who agree with me, even if they aren’t showing it right now. Every one of them understands how a slave-dependent economy works. Silver is infrastructure. You pull one brick and the wall gets nervous. Starborne runs one of the largest slave operations on the continent. It’s his precedent to set and he knows what setting it wrong costs because his revenue model depends on every other Alpha believing the hierarchy is permanent." Derek shrugged. "I didn’t write the rules. I’m describing the board. The pieces are already where they are."

Maverick’s arms tightened around Nova. One fraction. One degree. Enough that she felt his heartbeat through his chest and into hers, and it was hammering, hammering, hammering like a man who had just said the truest thing he’d ever said out loud and was terrified it wouldn’t be enough.

She was wrong.

He let the board analogy settle. Then he flipped it.