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Njáll

V asile perches on the edge of the sofa in my office, casting a curious gaze around the room. I try to relax my shoulders and fail. What does he think about the changes I’ve made? Should I care? What will I do if he asks about them?

He says nothing, of course, about the décor, merely gives me a tight smile as I pass him a drink, leaning back in his seat.

He was gone by the time Afsaneh and I left the Council meeting room last night, which makes sense. He would have left with Deacon and Kieran. I do not know why he is here now; if he has a good idea about how to deal with Augustine, then he could have called me last night.

“I take it things are going well?” he asks before he takes a sip of his drink.

“That depends on your definition of well, I suppose.” I don’t mean to be terse, but my voice doesn’t ask my permission, and Vasile raises his eyebrows at the sharpness of it.

He sighs. “I am not readily available to speak with you about Quinn. I cannot pretend I would be unbiased, and I cannot risk pitting the clan against the packs.”

My hand tightens around my glass. What does he take me for? Of course I would value his advice, no matter the form it came in, but I would not start a war with the packs on his word.

How little does he think of me, if he believes that is to be true?

“I didn’t ask about that,” I say, then add bitingly, “You came here.”

“I did. I wanted to check in with you, and this seemed easier and friendlier than a call.”

“Check in how?”

“See how things are going, Njáll. This is a tricky situation to deal with so early into your role.”

“I…” I stare into my glass, then knock the rest of my drink back and scowl.

Vasile clearly doesn’t agree that Augustine deserves any justice, and though I’m not willing to stick my neck out for him, I still believe we should hear him out. That’s why he doesn’t want to give me advice. He agrees with his mate.

“Njáll?” Vasile prods. He appears genuinely concerned, and I’m certain he feels that way, too.

That doesn’t help me any.

“Why did you give me this role?”

“Sorry?”

“This role. Crai. Why did you give it to me ?”

He frowns. “I told you when I asked you to move into this position. I believe you are best suited to it. I think you will do a good job.”

“Then why didn’t you stick around? Why didn’t you start preparing for this years ago?”

Vasile sets his own glass down, jaw clenched. “You know why. I did not know that I would want to stop being crai until Deacon and I were reunited.”

“That was six months ago!”

“I am aware.”

“And you’ve already, what? Switched your allegiances, abandoned your clan, as though six months could prepare me to take over a role you were in for a century?”

“I—”

“You shouldn’t have chosen me for this.” I throw my hands up and get to my feet, pacing in front of the sofa. “Afsaneh would have been a better choice. Why didn’t you ask her?”

“I thought—”

“It shouldn’t be me! I can’t do this! What am I supposed to do when there’s a real problem if the packs and Council already don’t respect me?”

“Njáll!” Vasile snarls, and he might not be the leader of our clan anymore, but there’s enough power in his voice that I come to a sudden stop.

He shakes his head as he gets to his feet. “Enough,” he says gently. “Of course you can do this job. We both know you can do this job.”

“I can’t,” I say, but there’s a mulish edge to my voice now. “I’m already failing.”

“I think failing would be getting yourself killed and having your sire wipe out half of your donors in one fell swoop,” Vasile says, and despite the lightness of his tone, there’s real pain behind his words.

“Not to mention having your best chieftain kidnapped. I think that would constitute failure, don’t you? ”

“No.”

“ Yes ,” Vasile says. “I failed all of us in December. I should have tried harder to work with the packs, no matter what had happened between me and Deacon. I should have recognised sooner that it was time for me to transition out of my role—perhaps I should only have held that position for a few decades before moving on. There are so many things I should have done, Njáll, but there are only a handful I am certain I managed correctly, and your appointment is one of them.”

“You can’t be sure of that.”

“I am.” He shrugs lightly. “Maybe I will be proven wrong. But in that case, I will still not turn around and pretend I knew all along. I have faith in you, Njáll, but I do need you to have some in yourself.”

“I feel like I’m drowning.” The words spill out, no matter how much I don’t want to admit them.

Vasile smiles and steps closer. He pats my shoulder gently. “Let us help you. I can and will still assist with whatever I am able to, so long as you ask. Your chieftains, too. How much are you leaning on them?”

“You never asked us for much.”

“Yes, and I think we have established that I am not the person you should emulate in this role,” Vasile counters, eyes sparkling. “I should have asked for more.”

I nod, mulling it over. “Afsaneh is helpful,” I say. “She told me that she and Kayode would be available. I still need to find another chieftain. Elle has so much to do, and Briar is trying to keep her caught up.”

“If you want any assistance with your new chieftain, let me know,” Vasile says. “That is certainly something I can help with. The same goes if you want any more help with Elle. I might have to be more considerate of my position in the packs now, but it does not mean I have abandoned everyone here.”

I weigh the words, considering, before I say, “I thought you might.”

To his credit, Vasile doesn’t look that surprised. His lips quirk, but he’s not smiling, not really. “There may be times when it seems that way. I have to be mindful of where I am, and I will do nothing to risk what Deacon and I have ever again.”

That doesn’t surprise me, either.

“But I would like to visit more often if you are amenable to that,” Vasile continues.

“Of course. I thought—I don’t want you to feel like you’re not welcome here.” Is that what I’ve done? Perhaps. I don’t mean to.

Vasile smiles like he knows that and claps me on the shoulder again. “Maybe call your chieftains in tonight, Njáll,” he says. “They might be able to help you work out what to do with Augustine and Quinn.”

I bite back a groan because I don’t want to think about that again, but I know I have to.

Alwynn has promised she’ll call if Augustine approaches the Council a second time, and I would rather have that call than deal with this uneasy silence that, to me, feels as though Augustine is off plotting somewhere.

“I’ll call you tomorrow night?” Vasile says, shrugging into his coat.

“Yes. I’d like that.”

He smiles again before he leaves, and some part of me is settled. It is strange. If anyone had asked me a couple of days ago, I would have said that Vasile and I were on great terms, aside from this issue, and that there was nothing that needed to be said.

Instead, there was a heavy weight on me, exorcised through our conversation, and our honesty. I drop into the chair behind my desk and sigh.

I should continue being honest. I pull out my phone and call my chieftains.

It is midnight by the time they all arrive, Elle and Briar last, and I apologise for interrupting their plans for the evening.

It is likely Elle and Briar, at least, will have had plenty of meetings organised that they will now have to move, but I need to give them all the information I have on Augustine, just in case he decides to approach one of them.

“I need some advice on what to do in this situation,” I say once I’m certain we’re all on the same page.

Elle pulls a face. “Sorry, crai. I don’t think I can be neutral here. I feel bad for Augustine, but I know Quinn. I can’t in good conscience say that he should face that challenge.”

It is hardly a surprise. She is still good friends with Lucien, and Lucien is mated to Kieran, so she is entirely too close to the matter.

“That’s not a problem,” I say and hope she understands I mean it—it is better she recuse herself than pretend Quinn means nothing to her at all.

“The challenge should probably go ahead,” Kayode says. He, Afsaneh, and I are sitting on the sofa, and he leans back against the armrest. “But from what you’ve said, I don’t trust that Augustine won’t try to kill Quinn anyway.”

Afsaneh and Briar nod in agreement. I sigh. “Yes, that’s what I thought.”

“Might he be amenable to the idea of them both having a proxy for the challenge?” Afsaneh asks. “That way, he won’t just be taking his anger out on someone unrelated to this whole thing.”

I’ve never been witness to a pack challenge, and I don’t think they’re overly common here. Not in Deacon’s pack, at least. “Can they even do that?” I don’t know that Augustine will like the idea.

We all look at Elle, who shrugs, her eyes wide. “How would I know?”

“You spend the most time with wolves,” Kayode says.

“Yeah, not asking questions,” she shoots back. She frowns, shaking her head. “I mean, I could ask. Lucien would know, and he wouldn’t bite my head off over it.”

“If you feel comfortable doing so,” I say. She already said she can’t be unbiased about Quinn. I don’t want to put her in a position she’s trying to avoid.

“You know he won’t mind. He’ll know why I’m asking.”

He will. I miss Lucien’s presence almost as much as I miss Vasile’s, when it comes down to it. He was a chieftain for a while before he met Kieran and always level-headed—almost to a fault. He will do what he can to make peace here.

“There’s something I don’t understand,” Briar says, and her posture is hesitant when I look at her.

“Which is?”

“Why are the Hunters’ Council even entertaining this? They made their decision already. And Augustine isn’t part of our clan. If they wanted to, they could just tell him to leave—unless we forced the issue, they could run him out of the city.”