The pack meeting happened on a Friday night in the lower levels of the building, in rooms that did not appear on any floor plan filed with the city planning office.
Ava was not there. She had left at six with a brief goodnight and by seven the floor above was clear and the building shifted into the version of itself that existed before the corporate surface had been built over its older bones. Thirty-two wolves gathered in the long room below the basement level, the full senior council, the pack's operational leadership, and the energy in the room had the weighted quality of people carrying both loyalty and anxiety in equal measure.
Valdris stood at the head of the room and felt his wolf settle into its Alpha bearing, the specific alignment of presence and authority that the pack respond
