The formal notification went through Cael Orin's office at three in the afternoon.
Standard pack protocol — an Alpha's mate claim notification required acknowledgment from the pack's administrative structure before it became official record. Cael Orin had been sitting on the receiving end of Ashveil Pack administration for long enough to process it with the efficiency of someone who had been waiting for exactly this document.
He processed it in eleven minutes.
For context: standard processing time was forty-eight hours.
"He was ready for it," Zevran said, reading the confirmation on his phone.
"He's been ready for it since bay four," I said. "Same as everyone else apparently."
"Yes." He set the phone down. "Now it's pack record."
"What does that mean, practically?"
"It means," he s
