The hall held.
The largest space in Vane territory was not the packhouse itself but the old meeting hall that stood adjacent to it — built two hundred years ago for pack councils and regional gatherings, stone and timber and a high ceiling that amplified voice to the last corner. Orin had spent eleven days preparing it, which was visible: the forty-six Alpha seats arranged in the old Compact configuration, the neutral ground marker in the center, the specific and significant absence of the raised platform that would have communicated hierarchy. Equals. The convocation called by a Moon-Blessed queen operated on the premise of equals.
She had dressed with Old Wren's help.
The clothing had been in Thessaly's satchel — had been there the entire time, which Mara understood now as the full sc
