Chapter 11: Worth Any Cost

That night, she slept better than she had in years, and when she dreamed, she dreamed of amber eyes and the feeling of being safe in a way that had nothing to do with locks on doors and everything to do with knowing that someone had already decided you were worth any cost.

In the morning, Lily made a decision. Not the final decision yet, but the one that came before it. She called the department and requested a six-month extension on her sabbatical. She told them the data was more complex than she'd anticipated, that she'd need additional time to properly assess the wolf population dynamics.

What she didn't tell them was that she was also assessing the possibility of a life with someone who existed between two forms and was asking her to choose him knowing exactly what that choice meant.

Ryder didn't ask her what the extension meant. He just watched her make the call, and after she hung up, he looked at her with an expression that was pure relief and something that looked dangerously like hope.

"Thank you," he said.

"Don't thank me yet," Lily told him. "I'm still thinking about whether any of this is sane."

"Probably not," Ryder said. "But I think we stopped being sane the moment you didn't run from what I was."

That was fair. That was probably exactly right.

She'd come to study wolves. She'd come to be invisible, to document, to remain scientifically uninvolved. She'd planned to leave after three months with clean data and an untouched heart. Instead she was standing in the Montana morning sun, three weeks in, with a six-month extension on her sabbatical and the growing suspicion that the data was going to be very personally relevant.

Lily spent the rest of the day updating her field journal with notes that had less and less to do with wolves and more and more to do with the fact that she was slowly falling in love with an alpha who'd been waiting three years for her to be free enough to choose him.

The scariest part was realizing that she actually wanted to.

The council meeting was being held without Lily's knowledge, which in itself was telling. Lily, who'd become adept at reading pack dynamics, knew that this meant decisions were being considered that affected her, and that the decision-makers weren't confident enough in their choices to discuss them with her directly.

She was sitting in the guest room reviewing camera footage when she heard the raised voices. Not shouting, exactly, but the kind of intensity that came from serious disagreement.

She carefully closed her laptop and slipped out to the hallway, positioning herself where she could hear but couldn't be seen. Professional espionage tactics, which probably said something about the state of her ethics right now, but she was past caring.

"She's a risk," Cas was saying. "The Cascade Pack already knows about her. They'll use her against us."

"They've only strengthened our position," someone else said, probably one of the outer pack members she hadn't met yet. "Ryder demonstrated clear dominance. That shows stability."

"It shows obsession," another voice said, female, someone Lily didn't recognize. "The alpha is making decisions based on his attachment to a human. That's not leadership. That's a liability."

"The human stayed," Wren said, and her voice cut through the argument like a blade. "She had six months to decide. She took the extension. She's committing."

"Committing to what?" Cas demanded. "To dating the alpha? Or to being bonded to him? Because those aren't the same thing, and we all know Ryder isn't going to be satisfied with dating."

Lily felt something clench in her chest.

"The council votes," Ryder said, and his voice was quiet, which made it somehow more frightening. "On whether a human researcher remains in Ironwood territory."

"The alpha abstains," the unknown female voice said. "You're too close to this decision."

"I abstain nothing. I vote that she stays. That's not a question."

"Then we vote without the alpha's participation," Cas said. "Secure vote. All council members."

There was silence. When the vote came back, it was five to one, with Wren the lone dissenter along with Ryder's vote. Six to two, technically, since Cas was clearly leading the opposition.

"The council recommends that the human be asked to leave Ironwood territory within one week," the unknown voice said. "For the safety of the pack."

"Noted," Ryder said. "And rejected. Pack law allows an alpha to override council decisions in matters of bonding and security. This qualifies as both. She stays."

"That's tyrannical," Cas said.

"That's alpha," Ryder replied. "You don't like it, you challenge me. Otherwise, we're done here."

The sound of people standing, chairs scraping, indicated that the meeting was ending. Lily heard them file out, heard the lodge door open and close. She stayed in the hallway, trying to process what she'd just heard.

Ryder had invoked something about bonding. Something about claiming her without her consent. Not the bite, not yet, but some kind of protection that the council recognized. Some kind of official claim that marked her as attached to him, that changed the legal status of her presence in the valley.