Thomas blinked.
He had expected rage. Resistance. A fight he could navigate.
This was something else entirely.
“One day,” Thomas said carefully, seizing the opening before it vanished, “Luca will be Alpha of Black River Pack.”
“I can live with that,” Talia replied without pause. “It is my father’s chosen pack—the pack where he, too, served as Beta.”
Her voice softened, not weakened, by memory.
“Legacy matters.”
A ripple moved through the elders at that. Old names. Old loyalties. Old blood.
Talia turned slightly, no longer speaking only to Thomas but to the chamber itself.
“Let us be clear,” she said. “Luca will not be King.”
Reign’s spine straightened.
“Yes, he will stand in the line of succession,” Talia continued evenly, “but Reign’s children will come before his. That has nev
