Chapter 26 The Rumor Storm
Bella’s POV
The whispers had changed texture.
That was the first thing I noticed. Not louder, if anything people were slightly more careful than before. But the certainty in them had shifted. Before, when pack members repeated Kattie’s narrative, they said it the way people say things they believe. Now some of them said it the way people say things because other people are saying it, which was a different thing entirely.
I noticed it at breakfast. At the water well near the east garden. In the corridor outside the pack hall where a group of three women stopped talking when I passed, which wasn’t new, but one of them looked uncomfortable about it, which was.
Something had cracked. Not broken. Just cracked.
And cracks always spread if you gave them enough time.
\-----
The gathering that afternoon was not announced as a formal assembly.
It started as a general meeting. Rhys addressing the week’s border schedule, patrol rotations, a trade dispute with a neighboring pack. Routine. Controlled. The kind of meeting where nothing important was supposed to happen.
But the room didn’t feel routine.
It felt held. Like everyone was waiting for a single thread to be pulled.
I felt it the moment I stepped inside and took my place near the side wall. Conversations were quieter than usual, not because people were calm but because they were listening for something that hadn’t been said yet.
Rhys stood at the front going through the patrol schedule with the senior warriors. Composed. Controlled. Nothing unusual at first glance.
Except I could see it, the subtle tension in his shoulders. The stillness that wasn’t relaxation but containment.
He had felt the room’s temperature too.
When the patrol schedule ended, there was a pause that lasted just a little too long.
Then a voice broke it.
“We want to know where things stand.”
An older warrior. Broad-shouldered. Not aggressive, deliberate. Like he had decided to give the room permission to speak through him.
Rhys didn’t answer immediately.
“Say it plainly,” he said.
A beat.
“The full moon is in five days,” the warrior said. “The elders made their position clear. The pack has been patient.” A pause. “But patience has a limit, Alpha. And right now there are people who aren’t sure what they’re waiting for anymore.”
A murmur moved through the room. Not rebellion. Not agreement either. Pressure finding a voice.
Another voice came from the right. “The Goddess does not wait forever.”
A second, quieter: “It’s already been too long.”
Then from somewhere near the front: “A Luna should already be standing beside him.”
The room shifted after that. Not loudly. But noticeably. Like a weight settling into place.
I saw Rhys’s jaw tighten once. Just once.
Then he spoke.
“I hear you,” he said. “And I understand the concern.” His voice stayed even. “But I’m not making a decision of this weight under pressure. Stability matters to this pack. That includes this choice.”
“With respect,” the warrior said again, “stability is exactly what we’re questioning.”
“I know.”
“Then—”
“I said I hear you.” His voice lowered slightly. Not louder. Sharper. “That’s where things stand.”
Silence followed.
Not resolved silence. Held silence. The kind that waits for something else to break it.
And I felt the shift in the room again, not toward agreement or rejection, but toward a single name.
Kattie.
I looked for her before I meant to.
She was near the front, composed as always. Perfectly still. But something was different in how she held herself now. Not tension, not anxiety.
Adjustment. Like she was already responding to something that hadn’t fully happened yet.
When I spoke, I hadn’t planned it.
It just happened.
“Can I say something?”
The room turned.
I felt the weight of it immediately, all that attention shifting onto me at once. Not hostile, not welcoming. Measuring.
I kept my voice steady.
“I understand the concern,” I said. “And I’m not going to tell anyone how to feel about it.” A pause. “But I’ve been here long enough to see how this pack responds when leadership is tested. And I’ve seen Rhys make decisions that protect people without rushing them.”
I should have stopped there.
I didn’t.
“I’ve seen him hold the line when it matters,” I added. “Even when it would have been easier not to.”
A few eyes shifted. Not fully convinced, but recalculating.
I hesitated.
Then added, carefully, but not carefully enough: “If you trust him in war, it might be worth trusting him here too.”
That landed differently.
Not loud. Not dramatic. Just heavy, like a stone dropped into still water.
The room didn’t respond immediately, but I felt the change underneath it. Conversations tightening. People looking at each other instead of speaking.
And then I felt it.
Kattie.
I didn’t look at her right away. I didn’t need to.
The air had already shifted in her direction.
When I finally glanced up, she was already looking at me.
Smiling.
Not warm. Not polite.
Measured. Like she had just confirmed something she had already begun to suspect.
I looked away first.
\-----
The meeting ended without resolution.
Which meant Rhys hadn’t yielded, but hadn’t closed the pressure either.
People filtered out in clusters. Conversations restarted, differently now. Less certain than before.
I was halfway to the side door when I noticed it.
Rhys wasn’t moving.
He was still at the front of the hall. Not speaking, not engaging with anyone. Just standing there, looking at the space where people had been, like he was trying to trace something invisible that had passed through the room and left something behind.
I slowed.
For a moment I thought he might look at me.
He didn’t.
But then, just for a fraction of a second, his gaze shifted.
Not to the crowd. Not to the room.
To where I had been standing.
And something in his expression tightened. Not anger. Not confusion.
Recognition. Or something close enough to it that it unsettled me more than either would have.
I didn’t wait to understand it.
I left.
But the feeling stayed with me longer than I liked, not because of what had been said in that room, but because of what hadn’t, and because for the first time since I arrived in Moonstone, it felt like the room itself had started choosing sides.