Life settled into a beautiful rhythm over the next few months. I split time between Crescent Ridge and Shadowpine. Both packs adapted to their Alpha having a mate in another territory. It wasn’t traditional, but it worked.
Maya took on more leadership in my absence. She was brilliant at it. Dax handled security flawlessly. My pack thrived.
Kaden and I were planning something bigger. A formal alliance between our territories. Not a merger, but a partnership. Equal standing. Shared resources. Joint defense.
It would be the first agreement of its kind. Two Alphas working together without one submitting to the other.
“The Council loves the idea,” Elder Thorne told us during a meeting. “It’s exactly the kind of progressive cooperation your parents advocated for, Aria. If this works, other p
