I watched Emma lift her coffee cup to her lips, the simple movement captivating me with an intensity that would have been alarming had it not been so expected. My fingers tingled where they rested against the polished table, but I felt a warmth in my chest, an expanding heat that I recognized not as guilt but as something equally powerful: possession. Two centuries of waiting, and now she sat across from me, this werewolf woman with careful eyes and guarded smiles, simultaneously the answer to my oldest prayers and my most complex diplomatic challenge.
The dining room hummed with quiet conversation, silver clinking against china as the summit's attendees broke their fast. Sunlight streamed through tall windows, catching on the crystal chandeliers and scattering prismatic light across the
