Magnus

It took a long time for the Summit to get to my case. The hours crawled until lunchtime, when Tyler returned and led us to a private room with a deli spread, salad, and drinks where Tasha was already waiting for us. Her eager eyes fixed on me when Roy and I walked in but I just shrugged and reached for a plate. I didn't have any updates for her.

After lunch, Roy and I were led back to the chamber, where we were once again reminded that we were not to speak and that our phones must be off.

At this point, I cursed myself for forgetting about the phone in my pocket. How could I possibly have forgotten to check it during lunch? Lachlan was probably worrying. I might not be able to reassure him about much, but I could have at least told him I was still okay and waiting to learn more. Too late now, though. Roy and I were sitting in our privacy box and the Summit council was already streaming back into the room. If I left to check my phone now, I wouldn't be allowed back in until the next case was brought up, which could take anywhere from twenty minutes to well over an hour.

It wasn't worth the risk of missing my own case come up. Lachlan would agree.

Roy passed me my pad and pen, which were my unexpected lifelines in this dim, stifling part of the room. Roy and I passed notes sometimes, but I also had started taking notes on the Summit meeting when I realized it was the only way I had a hope of paying attention. And when my attention wandered a little too much, I doodled.

My case was the second after the lunch break. They didn't say my name or the pack's name, but I recognized the details and Roy had written our case ID at the top of my notebook for reference – it was too much to memorize since it was a seven-character string of numbers and letters. Until now, every time they read out the next case ID, my eyes had traced over the one Roy had written out for me and I had been simultaneously relieved and disappointed when they didn't match.

Now, though...

I wished I could have waited just a bit longer. Or at least that I could have had Lachlan here with me. Just holding his gloved hand would have made this more bearable. If I could have, I would have pulled out my phone and texted him for support – it had become my first response to pretty much any stressor lately – but I was denied even that small comfort.

I clutched at my notepad while the council member read out the appeal filed against me. I almost had it memorized by now, the string of legal jargon that amounted to the allegation that I wasn't rightfully alpha. I shut my eyes and tried to keep my breathing even as the words washed over me, only it was more like they were battering against me and rather than being granite, I was sandstone. The words were wearing me down.

I jolted when Roy put his hand over mine. He couldn't really hold it since I refused to relinquish my death-grip on the notepad, but the gesture made me feel less alone.

There were people on my side. Tourmaline seemed to want me, seemed to think I was worthy. Even if the Summit ripped me out of my role, my pack's support meant a lot.

The councilors were silent, flipping through the packets of paper in front of them or, if they had one, typing away on their laptops. Time simultaneously flew and crawled while I waited for one of them to say something, anything. I knew how this went, though. For every case, they spent at least fifteen minutes on what looked like research before the discussion began.

"Article six, section four," one of the councilors finally said, breaking the long silence. "A new alpha may set his own rules for succession, but the former rules must be honored for the first twelve months of his or her rule."

I glanced sharply at Roy, who grimaced. Wasn't this good news? I had been alpha for over twelve months. No one had challenged me in that time, either under the old rules or the new. Didn't that mean I was safe?

"Article twenty, section two," another said. Her tone made it sound like a rebuttal. "At any point in an alpha's reign, the Summit may evaluate his or her competence. He or she may be removed from power."

I tried to swallow, but my throat wouldn't work. Was that true? At any time, a group of strangers I didn't know could find me lacking whether or not I had officially done anything wrong?

On one hand, this was good – it meant Marcus would have been removed from power eventually. With how slowly the Summit moved, it wouldn't have been fast enough to help my family or to save the pack from his brutality... but he wouldn't have ruled unchecked forever.

On the other hand, it meant I would never feel completely secure as alpha.

"Are you calling for an evaluation of competency?" the first councilor asked.

"Aye. The alpha is untried and we cannot ignore the appeal raised against him."

There was a long silence while the Summit council looked at each other, their expressions conveying little, but eventually a fourth member nodded and rose to his feet. "All in favor of dismissing the appeal against alpha 294A53B, say aye."

All nine council members raised their right hands and said "Aye."

My heart leapt, but I could feel it in the air – could feel that they weren't done with me yet. It was in the hard eyes of each council member as they slowly lowered their hands, but did not set them back down on the table. They looked expectantly at the one who stood.

"All in favor of conducting an evaluation of alpha 294A53B, say aye."

Once again, every hand raised and they all said "Aye."

I trembled in my seat. Opal hadn't won... but she hadn't lost, either. I didn't completely understand the ramifications of this, though no doubt it was one of the possibilities Roy had tucked away in his files of research. It was clear that the Summit wasn't done with me just yet.

The councilor who had taken the vote sat down while another recorded their decision. Then the first councilor read out another case ID and I tuned out of their meeting.

Roy was hurriedly writing on his notepad. I leaned over and tried to read it, but the box we were in was too dim for that without getting way too close to him. When Roy was done, he passed the notepad to me and I tipped it toward the light so I could read:

"It's a decent outcome. Two lawyers and possibly a couple of investigators will come to our pack. One lawyer will act as your defense while the other will act as the prosecutor. Once they've learned all they need to within the pack, we all come back to the Summit for a hearing. It'll go a lot like a court case. Burden of proof is on the prosecutor – they have to show that you're incompetent for you to be removed."

Okay. That didn't sound so bad. Don't get me wrong, I was freaking out... but I had been so focused on the worst-case scenario coming into today that this felt almost like a reprieve. I scrawled one word under his explanation: "Timeframe?"

He grimaced and reached for the notepad. When he passed it back, I found the completely unsatisfying response of "Weeks – months?"

Dang. It had started feeling like Roy was an all-knowing resource I could tap, but of course he was just a man. A man I was very privileged to have by my side. All of this would have been so much worse without him. Roy tucked the notepad away and leaned back in his seat, shutting his eyes. I had hoped that we might leave now that our case had been discussed, but I trusted that Roy had a reason for sticking around.

I flipped my notebook to a new sheet and resigned myself to a few more hours of doodling.

--

Finally, the Summit adjourned for the day. After we watched the councilors file out of the room, we waited until Tyler came to lead us back to Tasha. His expression wasn't as skillfully masked as it was earlier – now he was looking at me with a glint of what I almost might have called kindness.

"Tomorrow we will be assigning people to your case and bringing them up to speed. They'll take the day to prepare for their investigation and will likely call you in the following day."

We headed down a long hallway and I seriously debated stopping to use the bathroom – that meeting had been long – but I really wanted out of this place. I could make it to the hotel.

We made it to the lobby, where Tasha was already waiting for us. Her eyes searched my expression, then Roy's, but her confusion didn't clear. It was comforting to know I wasn't so easily read right now.

"Did you need anything else?" Tyler asked.

I glanced at Roy, who was the real brains behind this operation. He gave a minute shake of the head, so I turned back to Tyler and said, "No, thank you."

Tyler nodded and headed back through the guarded door. "Time to get out of here?" Tasha asked hopefully.

"Yes. Would you mind calling an Uber?" Roy asked.

Tasha smirked. "Already did. He's two minutes away."

We decided to wait outside for our ride. In the meantime, I turned my phone back on. It was kind of nice to have the battery almost fully charged so late in the day. Once it finished loading, I looked at my notifications, which scrolled off the screen, there were so many. I ignored them all, navigating straight to Lachlan's text message chain. He had only sent two messages.

"Thinking of you."

"Let me know when you're out."

A quick glance at Roy and Tasha told me they were already tucked away in their own quiet conversation, so I hit the "call" button and waited eagerly to hear Lachlan's voice.

It rang for a long time before Lachlan answered - long enough I was about to hang up and text him instead. "Magnus?" he asked, sounding out of breath.

"Yeah, hi. You okay?" What could make him sound like that this time of day? I had expected him to be working, or maybe out for a walk.

Lachlan's breathing was still heavy, but he said, "Fine. How did it go?"

"Well... I think." I described the council's discussion about my case and the investigation they were going to be conducting. "I think this is what Roy's been expecting to happen. We're not out of the woods, but it didn't go badly," I concluded.

"Well, you're a werewolf," Lachlan said teasingly. "You're supposed to do well in the woods, I hear."

I snorted at the bad joke. "I miss you."

He hummed his agreement. "I miss you too. You'll be back soon, though."

Not soon enough. I didn't say that since I didn't want to sound like a sulking child. Also, the Uber had just pulled up. "Mind if I call you back later? We're heading out."

"Sure. Take care."

"You too."

Just that brief conversation had me feeling loads lighter. Everything in my life would be just fine as long as I had my mate and my family. If I could protect and help the pack while I was at it... well, so much the better.

We headed straight to a restaurant. While Tasha and Roy followed the hostess to our table, I made a necessary detour to the restroom. When I came back, Roy was on the phone and Tasha looked nervous.

"Yes, Corrigan's," he said – the name of the restaurant we were at. "Yes." Pause. "Okay, see you soon."

Roy slid over in the booth to make room for me and tucked his phone in his pocket. "That was your defense," he said. "A woman named Anita. She asked to join us – said she wants to start getting to know us." Roy's eyes were intent on mine, focused and serious in a way few people were capable of. "Your hearing starts now, Magnus. The instant that woman joins us, you'll be evaluated. She's supposedly on our side, but she can't do a good job of defending you if she doesn't believe you should be defended."

No pressure, I thought sarcastically. This was the one part of this process that didn't sit right with me: the person in charge of my defense was employed by the person in charge of bringing me down. It made it impossible to feel like she was really on my side.

"I understand."

"You'll be fine," Roy said with a small smile.

"We believe in you," Tasha said. "You should believe in yourself too."

Boy, was I glad Mel wasn't here to see how positively warm Tasha was being toward me today – my sister would be disgusted. The thought made me happy and I pulled out my phone to update Mel and Felix on everything that had happened so far today. I was still messaging with them when the sound of high heels clacked toward us at a fast pace.

I looked up into the stern gaze of a forty-something-year-old woman in a skirt suit. Her upper lip twitched in disapproval as her eyes slid to the phone in my hand. "Magnus Holt?" she asked, sounding bored.

"Yes, ma'am." I don't know why I called her that – "ma'am" wasn't part of my normal vocabulary – but honestly, she looked like a ma'am.

"I am Anita Helfrich." She stuck out a long-nailed hand, which I cautiously shook – cautiously because it really felt like one wrong move would send those nails into my flesh. Her obvious disdain for me intensified, probably because of my limp handshake.

"It's good to meet you," I lied. In fact, she was dour and not encouraging. I didn't want to place my fate and the fate of my pack in her hands (or should I say: claws). I really didn't want to have to rely on her. I didn't want to open up my life to her investigation. I didn't want to have her in the seat next to me instead of Roy at the hearing and during any other Summit sessions I had to attend.

If it weren't so dangerous, I would drag Lachlan along just for the moral support – not for the whole hearing ordeal, but for dealing with this woman.

Was this an extreme assessment after a first impression? Yes.

Was I going to change my mind on her? Unlikely.

Tasha slid further into the booth and Anita squinted suspiciously at the seat before perching herself delicately on it. Her visage reminded me more of a hawk than a wolf as she peered down her nose at me. She pulled a file out of her bag and flipped it open. I was able to catch my name and some of the details of my life – pack history, when I became alpha, my birthday – before she caught me looking and snapped the folder shut. Next, Anita pulled out a notepad and pen. "Tell me your side of the story – anything you think is relevant to the hearing."

I wanted to refuse. I wanted to tell this woman that it had been a long day away from my mate, that I was tired, and that this dinner should have been a chance to unwind. I wanted to tell her that it was her job to know what questions to ask and what details were relevant, that my life had been long and I couldn't be expected to recite the facts like a machine.

Roy shot me a warning look and I internally sighed.

I knew better than to say any of those things, even if my lips were eager to form the words. Roy had been right earlier when he said my hearing started now. Anita wouldn't do a good job defending me if she didn't think me worth defending, and it was obvious what she already thought of me.

Suck it up, Buttercup.

I took a sip of water and got to work answering Anita's questions.