them, letting them hold me up for just a moment as I fought for my strength. “Let’s get through today, let’s plan this all out, then I can figure out a way to face her.”
Chann scooped me up, heading for the sofas in front of the fireplace where we all settled. I wiped away the remainder of my tears, taking a deep breath as I tamped down my worries regarding Luna. One problem at a time, and at the moment, that problem was Lyle. “So what are we going to do about Lyle?”
“My father hoped we could wait until he was back on pack territory before we made a move,” Alarick informed me, settling himself carefully across from me, “but apparently that isn’t going to happen. I reached out to him over the past few days and haven’t heard anything back from either him or Borris, so they must be deep in negotiations with one of the other packs.”
Concern tore at me, and I reached out to clutch Zev’s hand as he sat beside me. “That’s normal?” I croaked, fear tightening my throat. Raff and I had spent little time together, but he had looked out for me behind the scenes since the time I was young, and I considered him a friend. With everything going on, the idea that Raff and Borris were out of touch had the hair on my wolf’s neck rising and a snarl working its way up my throat.
“Very,” Alarick assured me, offering a comforting smile. “I frequently go on these trips with him as part of my training, and if it wasn’t for me needing to be here with you, I probably would have. On our last trip, we were in meetings for nearly eight days without contact.”
Zev groaned. “Goddess, I remember that. That was when the plumbing went down and the students all reached out to their packs to complain, and we were handling calls left and right.” He shuddered. “Talk about a nightmare.”
I giggled as some of my tension eased. “I guess so. I just don’t like the pack being separated.”
Alarick nodded. “It’s part of the magic that binds you as beta. It has more of a pull on you now than when you were merely a member of the pack. You now have an innate need to hold the pack together at all costs, it was part of your oath.” I nodded my understanding, thinking of the magic that had bound me to Raff.
“I agree with Pixie,” Shannon piped up. “It’s a hard time to have them out of contact.”
“Is there some kind of emergency system?” I inquired slowly, considering it. “I mean, would we sense if he was in trouble? Or is there a guaranteed way to reach him if there is something that we can’t do without him here?” My thoughts returned to the Starlight Woods Pack. “I mean, what if Starlight Woods came and challenged us or something? Or simply overran us?”
“There are wards that would kick into effect if they tried to overrun us,” Fillian explained. When I looked at him askance, he smiled and pushed his glasses up. “Some wolves have protective powers. Because this is a school for multiple packs, wolves from each pack got together and imbued the wards. They won’t protect the grounds, only the building itself, and they aren’t permanent, but it would allow us to contact our allies and bring aid to the school. A fail-safe, if you will. It won’t prevent challenges, but it does prevent all-out war.”
“Unless they capture anyone outside the walls of the building,” I countered.
Fillian inclined his head. “Which is why we have gates and scouts, all of which have increased in number lately.” Okay, point taken.
“Challenges need to be issued to the alpha, not the stand-in, remember?” Shannon reminded me with a nudge. “So they’d have to wait for Raff to return.” Something was niggling at me, an instinct or thought that just wouldn’t connect, and I hummed to myself, hoping if I turned my attention elsewhere, I could figure out what I was missing. We’d have to worry about the pack politics soon, but for now, it was time to focus on Lyle and hope I wasn’t going to end up losing everything I had finally gained.
Chapter Seven
Pixie
“So what are we going to do about Lyle?” I asked, poking at my phone. “He’s clearly not going to wait anymore, but we’re still where we were when we last talked about this.”