The meeting had been going for forty minutes and I still didn't have a single answer I could actually use.
"Someone placed it," Elder Maren said, for the second time, like repeating it would make me less annoyed about it. "Deliberately. The land didn't end up in human hands by accident. Someone arranged that transfer through Weston County records over thirty years ago, and they were careful about it."
"Who?"
"We don't know yet."
"But you have suspicions."
"We have suspicions," Elder Sorin said, which was notable because Sorin didn't usually volunteer anything. When he spoke, it meant the thing being said was old enough to need his voice on it. "We're not ready to name them."
I let that go. I didn't like it, but I let it go.
"The name on the older filing," I said. "The one Elise found. What is it?"
Maren and Sorin did the thing where they looked at each other before answering, which meant they'd already decided how much to say before I walked in.
"It appears in the pack's founding records," Petra said. Petra was the youngest of the three, which still put her well ahead of anyone else in this room, and she was the one most likely to just say the thing directly. "Not as a pack member. Something older than that."
"What does that mean?"
"It means the land has history that predates the current territorial claim by a long time," she said. "And someone who knew that history used it."
Someone with access to the founding records. That's not a long list.
I sat with that for a second, then said the other thing. The thing I'd been turning over since the night she showed up at my gate.
"There's something else," I said.
All three of them looked at me.
I didn't love saying this out loud. I'd been running it around my own head for two days and I still wasn't fully comfortable with what it meant.
"My wolf. It's been—responding. Since she arrived. Every time she's near, I can feel it. Not faintly. Clearly and loudly." I paused. "That hasn't happened in ten years. Not once, not even close, and then she walks through my door and—"
I looked at them and I could tell that they already knew. These old… people.
"We felt it too," Dort said. "When she came through the gate."
"Then you know it's not normal. The seal should be holding. There shouldn't be any—"
"I saw her on my way in," Maren said.
I stopped. "What?"
"I saw her on my way here," she paused. The corner of her mouth was doing something. "Very pretty girl."
"That's not — we're not talking about that right now."
"I'm not talking about anything. I'm just saying." She glanced at Petra. "Very pretty."
Petra made a sound of agreement that I chose to ignore.
"My wolf," I said. "Can we stay on my wolf?"
"You drove to her motel," Sorin said. Completely flat. Just a fact, sitting there in the room.
"That was a security matter. Someone sent her a threatening text from inside the territory and I needed to—"
"At 2am," Maren said.
"The timing was—"
"Rhys." She was smiling now, which meant I was about thirty seconds from being thoroughly entertained at my own expense. "We've known you since you were a nightmare of a child who once screamed for twenty minutes because your father wouldn't let you have a third helping of dinner. You can just talk to us."
"I'm not—this is not that kind of situation; I'm trying to have a serious conversation about the seal—"
"He's flustered," Petra said to Maren.
"Completely flustered," Maren agreed.
"I'm not flustered," I said. I was a little flustered. "Can we focus? Is the wolf responding to her a problem? Is something wrong with the seal? Dammit."
All three of them settled, and the teasing dropped, and they turned into the people I actually needed in the room.
"Your wolf responding to her doesn't mean there is something wrong with the seal," Maren said.
"Then what is it?"
"We need to verify something first. We need to confirm that the wolf's reaction to her wouldn't affect the seal before we say more." She folded her hands on the table. "When we're sure, we'll tell you what it means. But what we'd suggest is for you to take her to the sealed lot."
"Are you sure that's…safe?" I asked.
"There's only one way to find out," Sorin said. "Let's take that risk."
I let out a deep breath, giving it much thought.
"So, when do you think you're going to tell her?" Maren asked.
"Tell her what?"
"I'm sure you know what I mean, Rhys." She smiled sweetly. "What you are to her and her to you."
I stared at her because she was right. I knew what she meant. "I'll tell her when the timing is right."
All three of them smiled.
I pushed back and stood up. "In the meantime, I need all three of you reachable from now on. Callum tried to get through to someone and nobody picked up. Not one of you."
"We were occupied—"
"I don't care. Sorin, your landline didn't answer either." He had the decency to look mildly sheepish. "And, Maren, you've had that landline since before I was born." I looked at all three of them. "If something had happened to her while I was trying to track down a burner phone and none of you were reachable—" I stopped. "I need to be able to reach you. That's all I'm asking. It's not complicated."
Maren stood and patted my hand, which was her way of saying yes, fine, point taken, without actually saying it.
"Go see your girl," she said.
"She's not my—"
"Oh, of course, she's not." She smiled again. "She's more than that."
They were already filing out.
I stood there for a second, then gave up and went into the hall.
Callum was leaning against the wall outside with his arms crossed.
"Elise Winters has been in the waiting room for more than twenty minutes."
I sighed. Oh shit.
The reasonable thing was to send her home and tell her to come back tomorrow. I had nothing solid to give her yet; the elders hadn't finished their verification, and sitting across from her before I had answers was just going to make everything harder to manage.
I went in anyway, because dammit, I had to see her.
She looked up from the folder in her lap when I walked through the door, and my wolf slammed against whatever was containing it so hard I actually had to stop moving for a second.
My wolf was louder than yesterday and more insistent. Like it had been waiting in that room with her for twenty minutes and was done being patient about it.
I sat down across from her and worked very hard at looking like everything inside my chest was completely fine.
It was not completely fine.