The Fifth Howl

Chapter 4 The Council

The emergency bells didn't ring. They howled.

Low, bone-deep, the sound vibrated through the stone of the Tower, through my teeth, through the new thing under my skin that was still pacing. Lyra didn't like that sound. She bared her teeth in my head.

Hunters.

The four of them moved at once. Not panicked. Practiced. Like they'd drilled this.

Kade was at the window, shadows already spilling out of his hands to cover the glass. "Two cars. Black. Council plates. And one Ebon Pack truck."

Darius. He came himself.

My blood went cold. The little surge of power I'd felt from the flames vanished, replaced by nineteen years of conditioning. Darius Vane's voice in my head: Wolfless pups are a drain on resources, Elara. You should be grateful I let you breathe my pack's air.

Jaxon noticed me shaking. He crouched in front of me again, his amber eyes at my level. "Hey. No. Don't do that. Don't go blank again."

"I'm not blank," I whispered, but my voice was small.

"I know." He reached out like he was going to touch my face, then stopped, glancing at Kade. "Can I-"

"No," Kade snapped.

"For f**k's sake, Kade, she's terrified!"

"And you're in pre-rut and leaking pheromones all over her! Control it!"

Rhys hadn't moved. He was standing by the fireplace, eyes closed, fingers pressed to his temples. He was listening.

"There are six of them," he said quietly. "Two Council Enforcers, Elder Margot, Elder Thorne... and Darius. And Seraphina. She brought Seraphina."

Of course she did.

Silas was suddenly beside me, his cool hand on my shoulder. The moment he touched me, the shaking eased. Not because he took the fear, but because he shared it. I felt his own fear, quiet and deep, like cold water.

"It's okay to be afraid," he murmured. "I am afraid every time I touch someone. That never made me wolfless."

The Tower doors boomed.

Three heavy knocks that shook dust from the library shelves.

Kade's shadows snapped back to him. "Ward's holding, but Thorne can break it. He has nullification."

"Let them in," Rhys said, opening his eyes. His blue eyes were glowing faintly. "If we keep the ward up, it looks like we're hiding a weapon. We are not hiding a weapon."

"We are literally hiding a weapon," Jaxon hissed.

"We are hiding our mate," Rhys corrected, and my heart stopped. "There is a difference in Council law."

I stared at him. "I'm not your-"

"Later," Kade said, and walked to the door. He rolled his shoulders back, and in a second he went from worried boy to the Executioner of Aeternum. Cold, perfect, untouchable. "Silas, behind me. Jaxon, watch the windows. Rhys, do not read their minds unless I say so. And you-"

He looked at me, sitting on his couch in a borrowed blanket because my uniform was scorched.

"Do not shift. Do not manifest. Do not speak unless spoken to. And whatever you do, do not let them smell your fear."

The doors opened.

Elder Thorne filled the doorway. He was seven feet tall, his grey hair braided with bones, his own wolf so old its scent was dust. Behind him, Elder Margot, small and sharp-eyed. Two Enforcers in black tactical gear, hands already on their silver collars.

And Darius Vane.

My adopted father.

He looked exactly the same as when he dropped me and Seraphina off three weeks ago. Impeccable black suit, Ebon Pack crest on his lapel, beard trimmed to perfection. The Alpha who took in a poor wolfless orphan for good press.

His eyes found me instantly. No warmth. Only calculation. And disgust.

"Elara," he said, his voice that smooth, disappointed tone he used when I'd spilled something or spoken out of turn. "What have you done?"

Seraphina peeked out from behind him, her eyes red from crying. Fake crying. Her uniform was still muddy from where I'd fallen.

"Father, she attacked me! She used dark magic! Look what she did to my books!"

Elder Thorne stepped forward, his nose working. He was sniffing the air. Sniffing me.

"Interesting," he rumbled. "This is the blank girl? The Vane charity case? She does not smell blank now. She smells like..."

His eyes snapped to the Quads, then back to me. Realization dawned.

"Impossible," Margot whispered. "The Origin scent. It's a myth."

"It's not," Silas said quietly.

Thorne ignored him and looked straight at Kade. "Nocturne heir. Step away from the girl. She is to be taken for examination. By order of the Lunar Council."

"On what grounds?" Kade didn't move. He was taller than Thorne, but Thorne had a hundred years on him.

"On the grounds of unregistered god-level manifestation, potential possession, and endangerment of the student body," Margot snapped. "Do you have any idea what you four have done? You've tethered to an anomaly! Your fathers will-"

"Our fathers orchestrated the ritual that made her," Rhys said, calmly, but the words dropped like a bomb.

The room went dead silent.

Darius's face twitched. Just a flicker. But I saw it.

Rhys kept going, his blue eyes never leaving Darius. "Violet Eclipse. Nineteen years ago. Five children were supposed to be born. Four with gifts. One as the vessel. You told the Council the vessel died. You lied."

Thorne slowly turned his massive head to stare at Darius.

Darius recovered fast. He laughed, a warm, fatherly laugh. "Rhys, my boy, you have always had an active imagination, like your mother. Elara is a wolfless girl who had a... a hysterical episode. Clearly the proximity to our four strongest Alphas triggered some latent-"

"She said her name is Lyra," Jaxon interrupted, grinning, but his eyes were murderous. "Her wolf. Want to tell them who Lyra is, Alpha Darius? Or should we ask why you kept a god in your basement and told her to clean your daughter's boots?"

Lyra surged at the word god. My claws shot out again. Violet light bled from my eyes.

And Darius, for the first time in my life, looked at me with fear.

"Elara Vane," Elder Thorne said, his voice suddenly soft, reverent and terrified. "Child. Look at me."

I looked.

"Are you possessed?"

I thought about the voice that had been my only friend for a month. About the wolf who paced and said mine. About the feeling of being whole for the first time ever.

"No," I whispered, and my voice echoed with another voice layered under it. Older. Deeper. "I am not possessed. I am finally awake."

And as I said it, all the runes on the Tower walls - runes that had been dead for centuries - flared violet.