#Chapter 42: Wolves at the Table

ELENA I’d barely slept the night before. My head still throbbed from the press conference, the way Derek had held my hand in front of the cameras like we were still something, like we were united. Like I wasn’t still carrying the weight of all the things inside me that he’d shattered. The shrapnel he’d left behind, working its way out of my skin slowly, one piece at a time. And every piece hurt. Now, I stood outside the Alliance Summit chamber, listening to the muffled sounds of arguing voices through the thick oak doors. Wolves from all over were inside—Alpha Council members, envoys from neighboring packs, a few Lunas and Betas who’d earned the right to advise. And Mason… was nowhere to be found. Again. My father had expected him to attend in his stead. And now I had to do it. I clenched my jaw and opened the doors, the voices quieting for a beat before the tension rolled back in like thunderclouds over a dry field. “Princess Elena,” Alpha Jameson of the Hollow Pines Pa