The Luna's Vow

Chapter 2. Family Connections

"Blake," I said, because whispering in the tense silence that descended on the boardroom was pointless. "Blake, we invited him. Both of us. I want to hear him out. Please."

Blake didn't look at me, he looked at Steinar.

If only we were in private, I would have said please a dozen times, and Blake would have rattled off a list of issues he had with this situation. I could read every one of them in the scowl that twisted his normally stoic features as plain as day.

Steinar is a fraud. He would break your heart with his lies and false hopes. This is not good for you, Este, and it's not good for the pack.

My brain agreed with this imaginary Blake, but after losing my mom so young and lacking any other family, I had to hear anything, from any source, however questionable, about her.

I kneaded my hands in my laps, missing holding Blake's hand. I really could have used the comfort of his touch right now. I needed to know he understood, even if he didn't approve. "I must hear him out."

My gaze fixed on him, searching for the smallest hint of acceptance, but Blake was unreadable.

A minute must have passed. Finally, he furrowed his brows and looked at his Betas. "The rogue is my guest and under my protection, but I won't permit him to use our hospitality to insult us under our own roof."

My breath hitched in my throat when the crease deepened between Blake's brows. Goddess, he was going to throw Steinar out, and I would never find out what information he had about my mother. "B-blake, please..."

He glanced at me and his frown softened, his jowls relaxed. I always loved it when tenderness smoothed his features like that. The splinter in my heart stopped throbbing. Blake wouldn't fail me. He simply couldn't. He loved me too much to deny me anything.

"This meeting is adjourned. Give Mie any outstanding items for next week's agenda on your way out. My Luna and I will discuss private matters with the rogue," Blake said. His jaw tensed again, in response to the murmurs that met his announcement. "In private."

This was enough to squash the dissent.

Dirk Steinar stood next to the wall, while the Betas left. His arms folded across his chest, and his blue eyes never stopped crinkling in a hidden smile, even when Conan spat between his feet.

I envied the rogue his cool. Personally, I wanted to howl.

Conan's gleeful expression promised the next Council's agenda to include a vote for discontinuing the hear-them-out policy with the rogues. Judging by the other Betas' grim expressions, even Monica's—who supported me unquestionably since I saved her life—Steinar was the only experiment they were willing to endure.

Once the Betas had filed out, Blake pointed to the door on the right, hiding the break room Mie used to set up meals for the longer conferences.

"I'll be there if you need me, Este. Talk to him, but..." he glared at Steinar as if he could preemptively eviscerate him, "trust nothing he says. His type is a pathological liar."

"Ouch." Steinar waved his hand in front of his face as if to chase away some fumes once the door clicked shut behind Blake. "Nothing is more suffocating than testosterone and hierarchy."

"Are you forgetting that you're speaking to the pack's Luna?" I asked him.

"I forget nothing." Steinar came to sit on the tabletop, as if he was in his kitchen. "Only, you are far more complacent than I had expected from the rumors and your interest in the rogues and Omegas."

"Truth be told, I hoped for a repentant sinner."

"Pah. They're tedious." Steinar hummed behind his mask and scarf. "Are you really what you seem? A dutiful Luna who might as well have been bred, born and raised by this pack?"