When Sage drove into work, she always counted how many administrative spots were taken up.

Depending on how many members of The Elder Council showed up usually told her how her day was going to go. The fewer the better.

And sadly, today when she arrived all seven of the spots were taken. 

She wasn't surprised though, in two weeks the fall mating season began. The fall equinox was important in all werewolf communities. It was the harvest season and the traditional time for all unmated wolves to start "looking" to settle down if they hadn't before.

In the past, her parents used to throw the most lavish balls to celebrate the season. Wolves from across the country would travel to Black Maw just to be in the room of the most eligible Lycans of society. 

Now, the season simply was marked by a pre-meeting and small luncheon in the cafeteria of their community center. 

The meeting was only for those who were unmated. And Sage was currently running late for hers.

As she walked in to the office building, she hurriedly took off her jacket and set down her purse behind the reception desk. Looking in the reflection of the desktop computer, Sage fluffed her day 3 wash-n-go to life. 

She always felt her best on day 3.

Her hair was a thick coily cloud as black as night. Today, her hair lightly brushed past the tops of her shoulders, when it was straightened it poured down her back like slick onyx oil.

Glancing at the office phone, she saw on the small screen it was going on eleven o'five. Her meeting was at 11 sharp. However, even with knowing she was late, Sage took care to gloss her lips before grabbing her usual notepad and pencil case to meet with the Council.

When she approached the expansive dark wooden doors that led to the conference room, she could hear hushed chatter behind it. She could only imagine the gossip with her tardiness. Sage rolled her eyes as she braced herself to knock on the door and announce her presence.

3 soft knocks and the room behind the doors quieted immediately.

"Come in." A male voice answers.

Several pairs of eyes are on her as soon as she is abled to be consumed. Many of the elders were not senior citizens or any way "elderly" at all. They were simply old  and supposedly wise enough for people to rally behind them.

"We were worried about you." Elder Viktor Cross spoke first.

There was a twitch in Sage's lip as she resisted the urge to snarl at him. She was so sure the five minute tardiness caused a stir in his heart. He was a nosey little bastard.

"Thank you all for waiting on me." Sage politely responded, taking a seat at the end of the long square conference room table they were at. 

It was a very large conference room. There were at least 15 large leather chairs surrounding the table and The Council sat at the far end with Cross in the middle. Sage sat directly opposed to him.

On the walls of the room were portraits of Black Maw territory. A lot of the pictures taken during Sage's grandfather's reign over the territory. Directly behind where The Council sat, there was a giant portrait of them all in their wolf form. Elder Cross in the center, in full howl at the moon above.

Before, that's where the picture of her mother and father's first run together used to sit.

But that's a story for another time.

Sage unattached her newly acquired mating contract from her clipboard and slid the paper across the table for the group of men to devour. Cross didn't move a muscle. 

Elder Joseph McCarthy picked up first, scrutinizing the paper like it was a fake dollar bill.

"So you abstain once again, huh?" McCarthy jests. A rough chuckle ripping through the air. Some of the other Elders laugh too, passing the contract around. Sage says nothing, she sits and waits for Cross to speak. 

Although there were several men that sat on The Council, only one really mattered. Viktor Cross would love to be named Alpha, if only any other pack would recognize him as such. Cross had no blood claim to Black Maw and werewolves were very serious about blood and family trees. Unless an Alpha died with no heirs, only then was a pack supposed to choose another family to follow.

Cain and Anala died with two viable heirs. 

No matter how much Sage wished she could fork over the elixir that was Alpha blood to Cross and free herself from being subjected to him and his council, she couldn't. And she would never run away and force her brother into worse circumstances.

So, she let them play "house" and masquerade as true leaders. 

It was the only semblance of normalcy Black Maw had left and since they were practically invisible to surrounding territories now, everyone else seemed to let them play their game as well.

Cross had not moved his eyes from her, even leaning back in his chair as he watches her expression. It is almost as if he's trying to read her thoughts. 

If he could, he'd bite my throat out.

Sage thought. She hated this part of the season. She hated turning in that contract as much as he hated receiving it. She wished she could've been apart of a pack that wasn't run by insane geezers. He wished that she would bend to his will.

If Sage ever did choose to bend in her stance, oh she could only imagine the horrors that would ensue from Cross. He'd become even more insufferable than he was now and Sage did not want to think about what desperation could drive a man to do. She was the only way he could truly solidify his role as Alpha.

I would rather die.

And as she held his gaze and didn't dare flinch, Cross knew this deeply. 

He just didn't care.

"Why do you deny yourself the pleasures of mated life?" Cross's question slices through the boyish chatter of the other men in the room.

Sage's breath catches. The question catches her off guard... then she snorts out a laugh.

"Because I have not found my mate." Sage replies like the answer was painted in the sky, like the question was ridiculous to ask in the first place. Cross dismissively waves off her answer. 

"It's unbecoming of an Alpha's daughter—"

"You abandoned your Alpha and usurped his heir." Sage wasted no time in cutting off the pious tangent Cross was about to embark on.

The 6 other men in the room watched Cross's reaction more than they watched hers. 

The way his eyes narrowed. The way a vein near his temple began to pulse faster with his rising temper. She had no doubt if he were to shift and pounce on her in that moment they would all yip in delight and feast on her intestines with him.

He would never give Sage the honor though.

Killing her would stop the only hobby he had taken up for the better half of a decade.

Making her pay for everything her mother took from Black Maw and keeping from him the only thing left for him to be.

The room remained silent for a couple more beats before Cross simply tsked and shook his head. 

"Her attitude is becoming more like the other." Cross commented like Sage had left the room hours ago. Without missing a beat, other councilmen jumped in. "I agree. I wouldn't be surprised at this rate if it ran in their blood. Cursed women." Elder Jameson Tallow put in his two cents.

The other men on The Council were Cross's lap dogs. Men who also wanted a piece of the steak that was Black Maw, but there was so little left, they'd rather share whatever power Cross let them have.

They were comparing Sage to her mother. The disgraced Luna of Black Maw. The seductress. The cheater.

The traitor that fucked us all and couldn't stand to live to see her work finished. 

Anala.

No one would dare say her name. They treated it like a swear word. Sage had to admit she couldn't even think of her mother let alone say her name without feeling like someone was trying to suffocate her from the inside out.

She wished she knew why she left her here to endure such pain. 

She was a seer. She knows she saw it coming.

"Are we done here?" Sage brought the focus of the table back to her.

They turned towards her place at the end of the table in one accord. Elder Cross grabs the mating contract and glances over it painstakingly slow. He turns the pages like they may turn to dust. Then he exclaims like he just found out an interesting fact, pointing his finger towards some clause on the paper.

"The female who abstains from mating is one who has declared herself unfit for the season by her means." Cross reads aloud for the group, his finger following his speech on the paper. "Have you read that part, Sage?"

Every year since I was eighteen years old, you perverted dog.

Sage wanted to foam at the mouth and scream.

Instead she responded with a tight, "Yes. I've read the form in its entirety."

Speaking to them made her feel as if her throat was closing up just from rage. She hated to be under their microscope. Sage dug her nails into the wood of the table in front of her.

"Please state your reasons for being unfit to the council." Cross orders next and Sage immediately scoffs, offended. "I don't have to disclose that to you—"

"You surely don't." Cross butts in before she could make her point this time. The look in his eyes were hot with a sickening fire. "Please oblige me though, Sage. Its in our best interest to be like family..."

The bile that rose in Sage's throat was sour and it burned. Threatening to bubble over before she forcibly swallowed. Her nails pierced the edge of the table with more force than before as she resisted the urge to projectile vomit over everyone and everything like something out of The Exorcist. 

He made her feel like death itself.

"I don't have to explain anything to you." Sage dug her heels in metaphorically and physically. The air in the room stiffened.  

"And we will say the same to you when you are left behind chidless and unwed." Elder Tallow interjected again. The room turned towards him. Jameson Tallow was one of the packs fiercer warriors, however the war left him blind in one eye. The scar from being swiped in the face by enemy claws was jagged and gnarled his left side.

He had two sons, Krane and Thaddeus, both died in battle and his wife was one who chose to leave the pack with the intact survivors. 

As you can see, she left without him.

Sage waved off his comment with a slight hand movement, "Oh to be left childless in a barren land. I will survive." 

Tallow's expression darkened and he moved to say more, but Cross beat him to it.

"Watch your tone." Elder Cross chastised Sage's attitude with a low growl. It was always fun to see when enough was enough when they were on the receiving end. Sage rolled her eyes.

 "Every year since I was eighteen I've been coming in front of you and made to state why I would rather die than mate one of you nasty, inbred beasts. Being left behind by the lot of you would be a mercy from the Goddess herself." She grit out in response.

And this time not one of the men moved. 

Sage then moved back from the table at which she was seated and promptly left the room. She knew better than to still be there by the time they recovered from her outburst. She felt good though, she loathed coming before them just to be reminded of all she'd lost.

Her parents.

Her birth rite.

Her choice of mate.

Because only Goddess knows how she'd be able to find her fated mate when she was shackled to the territory of her pack. 

He'd have to come to her.