"I will answer the council’s question," he said. Every conversation stopped. Alpha Kaidan’s words settled over the chamber like a held breath. No one moved.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Naomi wondered whether he was remembering the years before Serena returned, when he had treated their marriage as a responsibility he could fulfil without ever allowing it to become a real partnership.
She wondered whether he was considering the contract that had kept her beside him even after she asked to leave.
Perhaps he was calculating the consequences of choosing either woman.
She could not know. What she did know was that she would not plead.
She had spent four years trying to become someone Alpha Kaidan might look at with pride. She had studied, endured the demands of her healer training, and completed her final trial, even though she knew he wouldn’t attend her graduation. When she had finally needed him to believe her, he had accepted Serena’s story instead. After everything, Naomi had asked for a divorce, only to learn that the contract she believed would eventually set her free contained no end date.
She had survived each disappointment by reminding herself that her future did not have to depend on his affection. She would not abandon that understanding now.
Alpha Kaidan lifted his head. "Naomi is my wife," he said.
A few members exchanged glances, but he continued before anyone could interrupt. "She entered this marriage under a contract that I offered and agreed to. She did not create the terms alone, and neither did she decide to keep our relationship within the limits of that agreement. I will not stand before this council and allow her to be treated as though she were a temporary arrangement that can be discarded because another person has returned."
Naomi’s fingers tightened against each other. She stared at him, certain for a moment that she had misunderstood.
Alpha Kaidan had never spoken about their marriage that way in front of others. In private, he had reminded her that their agreement served a purpose.
He had told her that she should not expect love, that she should not imagine herself as the mother of his children, and that the contract did not require him to give her the future she wanted.
Now he was standing before the council, acknowledging that the arrangement had been his decision too.
The presiding member leaned forward. "That does not answer the question, Alpha Kaidan. The council is asking whether you intend to retain Naomi as Luna or consider Serena for the position."
"I intend to retain Naomi." His answer came without hesitation. The room fell silent.
Naomi forgot to breathe for a moment. She had expected him to defend the contract, perhaps to insist that the council had no authority to interfere in his marriage. She had even considered the possibility that he might avoid answering until the meeting was over.
She had not expected him to choose her so directly.
Alpha Kaidan pushed his chair back and stood.
His movement drew every eye in the chamber. He placed his hands on the table, looking first at the presiding member and then at the council as a whole.
"Naomi will remain my Luna. I will not replace her with Serena Cole."
The words were unmistakable. Naomi stared at him, unable to reconcile the man standing before the council with the husband who had watched Serena humiliate her and accepted the accusation against her without asking for her side. The same man who had refused her request for a divorce was now refusing to let the council remove her from the position attached to their marriage.
She could not decide whether she was more astonished by his decision or by the certainty with which he had made it.
Serena’s expression changed. Slightly at first. Her lips parted, and the hand resting on the table went still. Then she looked at Alpha Kaidan as though she expected him to correct himself.
"You cannot be serious," she said.
Alpha Kaidan turned toward her. "I am."
"But you and I—"
"We have a past, Serena. I will not deny that." His voice remained controlled. "There was a time when I believed we would have a future together. That was before you disappeared, and before I decided to marry Naomi."
Serena shook her head. "You told me you never stopped caring about me."
"I did care about you."
The admission caused another stir among the council members, but Alpha Kaidan did not withdraw it.
"I cared about what I believed had happened to you. I spent years thinking you had been taken from me against your will. When you returned, I wanted to believe that the person I remembered had come back. I allowed that belief to influence my decisions, and I failed to consider the consequences for my wife."
Naomi’s heart beat harder. He was speaking about Serena, but for once, he was not using their shared past to excuse the damage done to Naomi.
He was acknowledging it.
Serena drew a sharp breath. "So now I am being punished because I came back?"
"No. You are being told that your return does not give you the right to take Naomi’s place."
Christine finally intervened. "Alpha Kaidan, no one is suggesting that Naomi should be discarded without consideration. The council is examining what will best serve Blackclaw. Serena was the woman you intended to make Luna before she disappeared. Her return naturally raises questions about the arrangement you made afterwards."
"And those questions have been raised," Alpha Kaidan replied. "But the answer is not to treat Naomi as though the years she has spent in this pack mean nothing."
Christine’s expression tightened. "Your personal feelings cannot be the only consideration."
"Neither can yours."
The response was quiet, but its effect was immediate. Christine sat back, her eyes narrowing as she studied her son.
Naomi had never heard Alpha Kaidan address his mother so directly in a public council meeting. Even when Christine had spoken against Naomi, he had usually allowed the conversation to end without challenging her. Sometimes he had agreed with her. Other times, he had remained silent, leaving Naomi to defend herself.
Today, he was not silent. The realisation left Naomi almost as unsettled as his decision to retain her.
The presiding member raised a hand.
"We must be careful not to allow this meeting to become a personal dispute. Alpha Kaidan, are you saying that the current arrangement should remain unchanged?"
"No," Alpha Kaidan answered.
Naomi looked up sharply. For one brief, painful second, she thought he was withdrawing his decision.
Alpha Kaidan glanced at her before returning his attention to the council. "I am saying that Naomi will remain my Luna. But I recognise that the arrangement under which we married has created questions about our future. I will not pretend those questions do not exist, and I will not use the contract as an excuse to avoid my responsibilities."
Naomi’s lips parted. What responsibilities?
He had avoided them for years. When she asked about children, he shut down the conversation. When she wanted him beside her during important moments, he found reasons to be elsewhere. When she asked to leave, he invoked the contract as though it were an unbreakable command rather than an agreement between two people.
Now he was standing before the same council that had questioned her worth and admitting that he had responsibilities beyond maintaining the marriage on paper.
She could not tell whether she wanted to believe him or whether she was afraid of what believing him might cost her.
The presiding member considered his response.
"Then let the record reflect that Alpha Kaidan has chosen to retain Naomi as Luna. The council will not appoint another woman to the position against his stated decision. However, questions concerning the future of the household and the responsibilities of the Luna may require further discussion."
"Understood," Alpha Kaidan said.
Serena pushed her chair back, the legs scraping sharply against the floor. "Of course," she said, her voice rising. "You’ve made your decision. I suppose nothing I say matters now."
Alpha Kaidan’s expression hardened. "Your feelings about my decision are irrelevant, Serena. I have made myself clear. Naomi is my wife, and she will remain my Luna. There is nothing left to discuss."
Serena stared at him, visibly stunned by the cold finality of his words.
"You cannot simply erase everything we had," she said.
"I’m not discussing our past with you. This meeting concerns the leadership of Blackclaw, not your expectations of what our relationship should have become."
A murmur spread through the chamber.
Serena glanced around the table, searching for someone willing to challenge him. Christine’s face had tightened, but Alpha Kaidan gave neither woman an opportunity to interrupt.
"I will not have this council turn my wife into a candidate competing for a position she already holds," he continued. "If there are concerns about her ability to fulfil her responsibilities, present them. Otherwise, this discussion is over."
"Then what am I supposed to understand?" Serena demanded. "You spent years believing I had been taken from you. You told me you wanted to know what happened to me. You welcomed me back, and now, in front of everyone, you are telling me that I have no place beside you."
Alpha Kaidan’s expression hardened. "I welcomed you because I believed you had suffered. I wanted to help you recover from what I thought you had endured. I did not promise you Naomi’s position."
"You didn’t have to promise me. You knew what we meant to each other."
"I know what we meant to each other in the past. That does not give you a claim over my present."
Serena looked around the table, searching for support. Several council members appeared uncomfortable. Others avoided her gaze. Christine remained composed, although the tension in her shoulders was visible.
"You are making a mistake," Serena said.
"Perhaps I have made mistakes," Alpha Kaidan replied. "But I will not correct them by making Naomi pay for them again."
Naomi’s chest tightened. She had imagined Alpha Kaidan defending her many times. In those imagined conversations, he would finally understand how deeply he had hurt her, how often she had been left alone to endure humiliation that he could have prevented. She had pictured him apologising, admitting that he had been wrong, and asking her to forgive him. But she had stopped allowing herself to imagine such things because every expectation had become another opportunity for disappointment.
Now he was doing something she had once wanted more than anything. And she did not know what to do with it.
She looked down at her hands, trying to steady herself. She could feel the eyes of the council on her, waiting to see whether she would smile, thank him, or reach for his hand. She did none of those things.
Alpha Kaidan had made a decision. That was his right, just as it was her right to decide what the decision meant to her.
He could choose to keep her as Luna without having earned her trust. He could refuse to replace her without undoing the years in which he had made her feel replaceable.
The public declaration changed the position she held in the pack. It did not erase the marriage she had lived through.
"Madam Naomi," the presiding member said, turning toward her. "Do you have anything you wish to add?"
Naomi raised her head.
She could feel Alpha Kaidan watching her, but she did not look at him. "I appreciate the council allowing me to speak," she began. "I have heard the decision Alpha Kaidan has made, and I understand what it means for my position. However, I want to make one thing clear. I have never asked to compete with Serena for a position, nor have I asked the council to choose between us."
Serena’s mouth tightened. Naomi continued.
"I have fulfilled my responsibilities to this pack, including during the period when my marriage was difficult. I will continue to do my work as a healer, and I will carry out any duties that properly belong to my position. But I will not pretend that being named Luna resolves every issue between Alpha Kaidan and me."
A hush settled over the room.
"I hope the council understands that the position is not the same as a marriage built on trust. One can be decided in a meeting. The other requires much more than words spoken before witnesses."
She stopped. There was no need to say anything else.
The presiding member nodded slowly. "Your position has been heard, Madam Naomi."
Naomi inclined her head and sat back. Only then did she look at Alpha Kaidan.
He was watching her with an expression she could not fully read. Perhaps he had expected her to be grateful. Perhaps he had hoped his decision would bring some immediate relief to the distance between them. Whatever he expected, he found no easy reassurance in her face.
She was still dumbfounded by what he had done. A part of her wanted to ask why he had waited until the council forced the question before speaking so clearly. Another part wanted to know whether he would have made the same choice if the room had been empty and no one had been watching.
She kept both questions to herself.
The meeting continued, with the council discussing the duties attached to the Luna position and the need to maintain stability within Blackclaw. Naomi listened, answering when asked and refusing to be drawn into arguments about Serena’s personal history.
The truth about Serena’s disappearance remained unresolved in the chamber. The patrol captain’s earlier testimony had raised questions, but no formal conclusion had been reached, and Naomi was not prepared to speculate about what had happened four years ago.
For now, the council had heard Alpha Kaidan’s decision. That was enough to change the direction of the meeting, even if it did not settle every matter surrounding the marriage.
When the presiding member finally adjourned the session, chairs shifted and quiet conversations resumed. Several council members approached Alpha Kaidan, while others gathered their papers and left.
Christine rose and exchanged a few words with Serena. Serena did not look at Naomi as she passed her chair.
Alpha Kaidan remained near the head of the table, responding to a question from one of the senior members. Naomi collected her folder and stood, intending to leave before anyone could turn her presence into another discussion.
"Naomi."
Alpha Kaidan’s voice stopped her. She turned.
He had moved away from the table and was standing a few steps from her. For a moment, he seemed unsure how to begin.
"I meant what I said in there," he told her.
Naomi searched his face. "I heard you, Alpha Kaidan."
"I know you may not believe me."
"I didn’t say that."
"You didn’t have to."
She tightened her grip on the folder. "What exactly do you expect me to say?"
"Nothing. I don’t expect you to say anything."
"Then what do you want?"
He hesitated. The question seemed simple, yet he had no immediate answer that could make up for the years behind them. "I wanted you to know that I wasn’t going to let them replace you."
Naomi stared at him. There it was again: that astonishing determination she had never seen from him when she needed it most.
"You made your decision," she said quietly. "You don’t need my approval for it."
"It’s not about approval."
"Then what is it about?"
Alpha Kaidan looked at her, and for a moment the guarded expression he usually wore seemed to falter.
"Because I should have stood beside you long before today."
Naomi felt the words land somewhere she had tried to protect from further disappointment. She wanted to believe that he understood. She wanted to believe that the man before her had finally begun to see the damage his choices had caused.
But understanding was not the same as change, and one meeting was not four years of marriage.
"I have work to return to," she said.
He stepped aside, allowing her to pass. Naomi walked toward the exit without looking back.
Outside the council chamber, she paused long enough to draw a steady breath. The morning had unfolded in a way she could never have predicted. Alpha Kaidan had stood before the council and chosen her, challenged his mother, and acknowledged responsibilities he had spent years avoiding.
She was still trying to understand what she had witnessed. For the first time in a long while, she had seen Alpha Kaidan act without hiding behind the contract or allowing someone else to speak for him.
But as she continued down the corridor, one truth remained clear.
She had not spent four years waiting for him to choose her simply so she could forget everything that had happened before he finally did.
If Alpha Kaidan wanted a future with her, he would have to prove that his decision meant more than the words he had spoken in the council chamber.
And Naomi would decide for herself whether that future was one she still wanted.