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Njáll

V asile is sitting behind me in a low armchair, one leg crossed carelessly over the other as he pretends to leaf through a magazine.

I don’t know who left the magazine there. I don’t even know how it got into my rooms in the first place.

I can’t bring myself to care as I finish fastening my cufflinks, trying not to look my reflection in the eyes. Certainly, I’m not ready for tonight, and yet everyone is acting as though I should be.

“I can hear you thinking,” Vasile says. My eyes snap to him, but he’s still scanning the same page he was five minutes ago. It’s a full-page ad for some kind of expensive watch.

Who knows, maybe he’s in the market for a gift for his mate.

My lip curls and I tug my sleeves down, the cufflinks finally in place. I am happy for Vasile. Happy that after all this time, his sire is gone, and he is free to be with his mate.

I am less happy about the fact that he has decided to step down as the head of our vampire clan and, for reasons far beyond me, believes I am the person fit to take his place.

“I can’t do this,” I say, and a split-second after the words leave my mouth, my eyes flare wide in horror.

I didn’t mean to say that. I have gone six months without saying that. What is wrong with me?

Vasile snorts and closes the magazine, tossing it back onto the low table where he found it. “Fine. Get it all out.”

I blink at him but don’t turn to actually look him in the face. No, this is better. Even sitting, his posture casual and suit jacket open, he looks far more elegant and poised than I do. Than I could ever do. When I don’t speak, he cocks one dark eyebrow, clearly willing to wait.

“I can’t be crai,” I say.

“You are.”

I bite back the words I want to throw at him.

Yes, of course I am because we don’t do ceremonies and bonds like the wolves, and Vasile had me sign all the legal documents a week ago.

I moved into his rooms a month before that as they’ve been empty since January, when he went off and got himself mated and practically moved into Deacon’s pack house the next day.

Who was going to argue with him? With either of them?

“Vasile, I’m not…” I trail off. Ready doesn’t cover it. Not when I think I never will be. “You should have chosen someone else.”

“I could have,” Vasile says agreeably. He gets to his feet and buttons his jacket again before he approaches me.

Standing side by side, I look like the more immediate threat.

Vasile is not a short man by any means, but I am probably half a foot taller—and broader.

Groomed as he is, he looks the kind of man to deliver a cutting remark, perhaps, but not a physical blow.

Even all the work we have done to my hair has not quite tamed it; wisps of blond fall around my face, the beads on my braid resting against my jaw. I look more the part of a wolf than a vampire, and not at all the part of the crai.

“I could have chosen any of the chieftains we have left,” Vasile continues as though he cannot read my thoughts from my face. “But you have been here longer than any of them. You have been an attentive chieftain since the beginning. You’ll make this role your own.”

“What if I can’t?”

“Do you think I thought I could?” Vasile huffs a laugh. “It took Moreau and Deacon both to convince me, and you know the only reason I agreed.”

“Because Deacon is your mate.”

“Precisely.” He turns towards me, and I drag my eyes away from our reflection to watch as he reaches out and adjusts the sit of my jacket.

“That was enough to have me turning my back on being a vampire on his own, one ready to kill whoever he liked, and do what I could to bring this clan together. He was the support I needed, even if I did not have him with me for that long.”

No, because his sire came back and tried to kill Deacon. Or Vasile. Whatever it was Tamesis truly wanted, he made Vasile destroy the bond between him and Deacon, a bond that has only recently been restored.

Still, Vasile remained our crai despite the heartbreak. I cannot imagine anyone doing a better job, even under less awful circumstances.

He smooths the fabric over my shoulders now and looks up into my face.

“It’s just… overwhelming,” I say. I’ve already agreed. Everything is already in place.

“Good,” Vasile replies, which makes me start in surprise. His lips twitch. “If it were not, I would be more worried. You’re overwhelmed because you understand the enormity of this role. That’s a better start than I got off to.”

I snort, and Vasile smiles properly then, a smile that comes to him much more easily these days. He claps me on the arm, squeezing lightly. His time with the wolves is already changing him, but I suppose I can’t expect any less.

“Come along. Your guests will be arriving soon.”

Most of the vampires, in fact, have already arrived, but then since we are holding our little soiree at the clan house, that’s hardly a surprise.

I greet everyone I can, but thankfully many of them are much more interested in speaking to Vasile, who seems to have become more approachable to even our youngest members over the course of the last few months.

Elle laughs faintly when I reach her, adjusting her jacket.

Her green brocade suit somehow looks more comfortable than mine, and I fight against a scowl.

Elle might be our newest chieftain and is by far the youngest, but she has taken to the job with a grace the rest of us never possessed.

That being said, she spent much of the last few decades assisting Lucien, the chieftain who ran one of her districts, before she took over, and I suppose that helps.

“Looking forward to tonight?” she murmurs, and I shoot her a look that only makes her smile widen.

“Where is he?” I ask. If Vasile is here, Deacon cannot be far away.

“Skulking about outside. Heard Orion tell him that he has to wait a bit before he comes in.”

The waiting matters little to me. I’d rather they all pile in at once, say their hellos, then Deacon, Alwynn, and I could swear to uphold the treaty and everyone could go home.

“Cheer up, crai,” Afsaneh says in greeting.

Another of my chieftains, she also has two districts to manage, and just the reminder of that threatens to give me a headache.

She takes up position on my other side, her smile beatific as she looks across the growing crowd filling the ballroom. “It’s not all bad.”

Vampires mill about, the few donors who have decided to attend keeping to the edges of the room. “I’d rather get it over with.”

“It’s not your execution.”

On my other side, Elle snorts. “Sure about that?”

Afsaneh gives Elle an arch look, but her eyes glitter.

Kayode and Briar, my other two chieftains, are somewhere here in this crowd, and I make a mental note to seek them out.

We lost three chieftains last year—Lucien to his mate in a wolf pack, Savia to her resignation after the dust had settled, and Lazarus to Tamesis, though as he turned out to be a traitor, the thought of that does not sting.

I’m supposed to look for another chieftain—perhaps two—and the desire to mention it to Afsaneh and begin discussing potential candidates is strong.

I force my mind away from that. From all of it. I need to be alert tonight.

“Naomi said that the hunters are on their way,” Afsaneh says. She takes a flute of champagne from one of the staff with a smile. “You can probably slip away after all the formalities are done with.”

“I think I’m supposed to stay all night.” Vasile has made his way through the crowd and is talking to Kayode now.

“Nah,” Elle says, dragging out the vowel. “That’s the fun bit of being in charge, isn’t it? You can leave when all the obligations are done with.”

“They’ll be watching me.”

“They expect it,” Afsaneh says, her voice more soothing. She shifts towards me, and her gold dress shimmers in the light. “Don’t worry so much, Njáll. You’re the right person for the job.”

I let out a heavy breath. “Sure you don’t want it?”

Afsaneh shakes her head and a laugh bubbles out of her, loud and honest. “Sorry, crai. You couldn’t pay me enough.”

I huff—that seems unlikely—but she only laughs again, shaking her head. My shoulders tighten the longer we stand here. It should not take this long for the hunters to arrive, and if Deacon is here, the rest of the wolves cannot be far behind.

Elle discreetly slips her phone out of her jacket pocket and glances at the screen. “The hunters have pulled up,” she says quietly.

Afsaneh catches Kayode’s attention, who finishes his conversation with Vasile and signals to Briar. “Are you ready, crai?”

“As I will ever be, I imagine,” I reply, just as quietly.

Kayode and Briar greet me as they approach, taking up their places beside Elle and Afsaneh, respectively. Vasile slips into the crowd as the vampires turn towards us in anticipation. Two wait near the doors, and when I nod, they pull them open.

Hunter Alwynn is the first through the doors.

She is not a hunter I have had much contact with—not that I have had much contact with hunters over the years.

Still, she has not been long on the Council itself, never mind its leader, but all the reports I have heard of her are positive, and I believe the no-nonsense attitude she has cultivated will serve her well.

She crosses the ballroom floor without a flicker of self-consciousness, the rest of the Council on her heels. When she reaches us, she smiles and holds out her hand in my direction.

“Crai Njáll. I hope we will see just as much of each other as is necessary.”

My lips twitch, but I don’t smile. Well, not as widely as I want to, anyway. I shake her hand, inclining my head in agreement. “Perhaps more than in years past.”