Hannah stared at the document in her hands, the Alpha Council’s approval stamp glaring back at her.

“You… When did you do this?”

Noah shrugged as he slipped his robe on. “Since the moment I asked you to be my girlfriend.”

Her mind whirled as she thought back to that day six months ago—how Noah had said he had to run back into the Council chambers for something before they left. He’d said he would meet her at her house, join her family for dinner.

“You talked to the Alpha Council that day,” she said quietly.

He nodded. “That was the first day I told them of my intent. They weren’t keen on it, of course. But I wore them down over the past six months.”

She swallowed hard as the implications hit her. All the secrecy, all the sly smiles and promises that everything would be just fine… The nights spent holding her, telling her not to worry about their future because it would work itself out.

It wasn’t working itself out. He was working it out.

“You’ve been doing this all on your own?” She couldn’t decide whether to be upset that he’d kept it from her or impressed that he had come this far without her finding out.

“Well, not entirely on my own.” He shrugged, his gaze shifting briefly toward the flickering candles surrounding the room before returning to her. “Drake’s been helping for a few months now. Being on the Council has its perks, it seems.”

“Drake?” she repeated, still in shock. “That sly little bastard…”

Noah smirked. “I approached him after that first day,” he admitted, running a hand through his damp hair. “I knew how much being an Alpha meant to you, and I couldn’t ask you to give that up. So… I started looking for a way to make this work. For us.”

He paused, his expression softening. “Drake, of course, was all for the idea. And he does hold a lot of swaying power on the Alpha Council, being the Luna Queen’s beloved nephew and all.”

She blinked, returning her gaze to the bundle of papers in her hand. “So the Council just… approved it? Just like that?” Drake may have held a lot of power, but he was just one of many Alphas on the Council—many of whom were nearly twice his age and more than twice as stubborn.

Noah chuckled softly, shaking his head. “Not quite ‘just like that.’ It’s a tentative approval. They’ve given us six months to prove it can work. If we can successfully merge the packs and pull off the upcoming Spring Equinox festival, then they’ll make it permanent.”

“Six months?” she echoed.

Six months wasn’t enough time to merge two entire packs, let alone pull off a festival that the Council would deem successful. Her stomach knotted at the thought.

“That’s… not much time,” she said after a moment.

Noah nodded, his expression growing more serious. “I know. But I believe we can do it. Together. Assuming you want this, I mean.”

She paused, still staring down at the papers. It was unexpected, but it was… a solution to a problem that had been plaguing her for ages.

“So, if this works…” she hesitated, glancing back up at him. “We would both be Alphas? Of one combined pack?”

“That’s right. We would share the responsibilities, the decision-making, everything. I swear on my life, Hannah, that you wouldn’t be relegated to Luna duties. We would share the duties of both an Alpha and a Luna and then some.”

She chewed on her lower lip, trying to wrap her head around the enormity of what he was suggesting. “But what about your Beta?” The question slipped out before she could stop it. “You haven’t had one since…”

Her voice faltered, unwilling to say his name—Scott—out loud.

Noah’s jaw tightened at the mention of his traitorous half-brother.

“Since Scott,” he quietly finished for her. “I know. And I’ve had a hard time trusting anyone with that position ever since. It’s why I haven’t… made any efforts to find a new one. Even though every Alpha should have one.”