The Heartless Alpha’s Beloved Luna

Chapter 70 Avery's POV The pack library bore some similarities to the records room in the basement. Both were packed to the brim with information. Whereas the records room had boxes of files, the library had more bound books, but both boasted a copious amount of dust. | mused that one might be able to tell what the state of current affairs was for a pack if their library looked like no one had used itin years.

If our lives were more peaceful, perhaps there would be more time for scholarly pursuits Whereas previously | had been digging around in more general subjects like botany, pharmacology, and medicinal shelves to support my burgeoning medical interests, this time | was deep in the stacks looking for the tomes that recorded the earliest records pertaining to Nightwolf Pack's history. Primarily, | was looking for information regarding the early pacts and alliances that had been formed between Nightwolf and Silvermoon. I wanted to know where this intermarriage tradition had arisen.

Maybe | could find evidence to support ending it. ---- Mostly, the old records were cut and dry records of a struggling settlement trying to get by. Planting records and census rolls were in thick supply, providing sobering insight to the harshness of life in these northern forests. | flipped past heartbreaking records of swaths of deaths to famine, disease, and war. When the pack reached dangerously low levels, they had often turned to neighboring packs to form alliances and boost their numbers through interbreeding. There were stories hidden between these dry lines, | was sure.

In 'one instance, Nightwolf had allied with a pack named Ghostwraith, and then just two generations later a bloody war nearly decimated both. Why had that alliance fallen apart? There was no Ghostwraith Pack still operating that | knew of. | guess history is written only by the survivors. Finally, in the records from about 300 years previous, | found mention of intermarriage between Silvermoon and Nightwolf. Aha! | squinted at the whispery, hand-written script. "Advantageous marriage between Silvermoon Lunar Votaress and Nightwolf Alpha arranged to the satisfaction of both packs.

Eternal peace secured so long as marriage bond is fortified every third generation. interbreeding will further temper the sanguine cacodemonology that infects the Nightwolf bloodline Matrimonial amalgamation confers sovereignty to the Nightwolf Alpha bloodline that shall not be revoked so long as the union is intact." It took me a moment to parse

the union would have a degree of protection from the demonblood vulnerability that Gideon had displayed. | didn't know much about how genetics were passed on in werewolf packs, but | knew that most packs had some sort of historian or librarian who carefully monitored who bred with whom, to prevent serious illness and defects. It was part of the reason why

and steered us to our mates accordingly. Otherwise, the inherent close-knit small communities of werewolves would be much more susceptible to inbreeding and madness. ---- But there was more than that in this pact

honored at all costs, even when he himself had no interest

be happy with basically anyone, so long as it meant he was secure as Alpha! | flopped back in the leather armchair and stared at the ceiling. | was so screwed. | looked up what votaress meant, and found that it was

my generation, most people viewed the