ANNA’S POV
I hadn’t slept.
The council chamber smelled like old paper and cold coffee. Three packs’ worth of representatives sat down the length of the long table — Shadow Moon, Crimson Moon, Silver Ridge, Blue Moon — Mateo and Sebastián on one side of me, Ralph close enough on the other that he registered as a fact and not a comfort.
Luca sat across from me with Marcus beside him. He didn’t look up when I came in. I noticed everything that morning. No sleep does that — sharpens what shouldn’t matter, mutes what should.
I put the thought where I’d been putting everything else that was no use to me this morning, and looked at the elder presiding instead.
Isolde was older, Crimson Moon, and she opened the ledger without ceremony.
“We’re here to establish paternity and determine custodi
