This post will be chock-full of spoilers. Even though the last book came out a year ago, I'll use spoiler tags.
I just finished a re-listen of Magic Rises, and it raised a question that's been lingering since I read Magic Breaks: Do we think that the identify of Hugh's mole on the Pack Council has truly been resolved?
In Magic Rises, Hugh reveals that that he knows that Kate said to the Pack Council at the end of the events of Book 4. But in Magic Breaks, after Curran rescues Kate from Mishmar, he tells her that he found out that Jennifer was approached by Hugh's people after Daniel was killed...which was at the end of Book 5.
So that makes me think Jennifer couldn't be the original mole, and that that was a nice red herring Ilona fed us.
We readers don't know all the Clan Alphas. This would be the list prior to the events of Magic Rises:
CAT: Jim...and I think I've read online that the female cat alpha is one of his sisters? Has she ever been named? This is a plot hole for me, because when Kira is first mentioned in Magic Rises, isn't Kate surprised to LEARN that Jim has sisters? So how can the female cat alpha be Jim's sister if Kate is surprised to learn that he even has sisters? Regardless, I find it hard to believe that one of the cat alphas is the mole.
RAT: Tom and Robert Lonesco. Possible that one of them is the mole, but I find that hard to believe, especially after reading Magic Breaks. Just doesn't seem like their style.
HEAVY: Mahon and Martha. Come on...I cannot believe that one of them would be the mole.
WOLF: Daniel and Jennifer. The timing is wrong for Jennifer, I think, and I dunno...Daniel seems too honorable.
BOUDA: Aunt B and Raphael -- I think Raphael is the male bouda alpha at that time. NO WAY is either of them the mole.
NIMBLE: We know nothing about Nimble, except that the alpha couple challenged Kate at the Council meeting and she killed them and they were replaced by the betas. Clearly the original alphas could not be the moles. Maybe the replacement alphas -- the betas -- were. Clan Nimble doesn't really have much of a presence in this series.
JACKAL: I don't think we know who the Jackal alphas are. Have they ever been named. My vote for Council mole goes to the Jackals. If nothing else, it would tie in with Hugh's preferred shapeshifter soldiers of choice. Hibla and most of her people were Jackals.
(It could also be one of the BETAS. They were present in that Pack Council meeting as well. But that seems unlikely simply because it wouldn't be impactful for it the mole to be one of the betas.)
Okay, next questions:
Given Kate and Curran's separation from The Pack and Roland's agreement to leave them alone, does it even MATTER whether or not a mole is still out there. Kate is no longer in hiding, she has claimed the city, and one could even argue that she's under Roland's protection (since he agreed that he would give no order to any of his people to mess with her).
Obviously it might not be over for Hugh: Curran has bested him in a fight now TWICE and Kate has bested him once; Curran has Kate (whom Hugh wants); Hugh failed where Landon Nez succeeded (in persuading Kate to come to Roland of her own free will); and Kate -- after claiming the city -- will have more power than ever. (Magic Break explains that by claiming the City, Roland reaps the harvest of that land's magic. So the same should happen for Kate, and that upsurge of power will make her MORE of a challenge to Hugh, won't it?)
