Chapter Twenty Seven:
fallence and smug satisfaction Let them thank they’d won Let them believe
condor beyond. They were heavier this tune Purposeful Not the usual guard for the clumsy shuffle of faghtened underlings who didn’t
important Somerne udio mattered Someone who thought they could maffer more than I did 2
simondbed the strands of hair that had escaped my braid and sat straighter, folding my hands in my lap with
The forcidigli flickered, casting slurp shadows along the wall, long and jagged like the claws of wolves long dead but still lurking. The
but I paid it no mind
Wyron stepped into view He paused before the cell, ames folded inside the nich brown sleeves of his robe His expression was tight, fully composed, Hrough the lines around len mouth betrayed the strain he was under
“Callisto,” he said ⠀
“Lider Myron,” Treplied smoothly, offering a smile “Come to bring the tea? Perhaps a scone? You know how I hate to start the evening
He didn’t smile. He didn’t even blick. “You were caught attempting to flee the Keep. Do you understand the gravity of your actions?) Lurcher a brow slowly. “Was it flooring? Or walking with intent? Words matters.
This lips Hammed into a line. “Yon drugged Selene huduced a mating beat between her and the Alpha ”
Ah. So they’d discovered that part. Took them long moughs.
I sighed theatrically and filled my head. “You say it like it’s ac crime. Hut under the old codes-
“You know mancily what it was,” he stopped, his voice using “Manipulation Deception“)
“Stategy, I corrected, keeping my wich calm, men. He hated that
His eyes nanowed, storm clouds forming belend them “You’ve tainted the Alpha’s hood Put the entire council in jeopardy of collapse And for what? A fille you never truly commend?“)
stood then, slow and deliberate, the chains at my ankles clinking like the bells of a coronation. I looked him in the eye, unflinching X
“| earned everything.” Blissmi 1 bled for thes Pack Frained, studied, memorized the laws and the ntuals until I could recite them backward Istood beside Kade before lus was Alphia, before the council even acknowledged his claim. And you would toss me aside for a she woll dragged in from the wilderness, barely housebroken, with no pedigree and no sense of protocol?”
He stared at me for a long moment. Measured. Weigland Hin, fe stepped closer.X
“Do you deny it then? That you laced her winn with the Elixir of Brannic Heat?′′)
“Why would I deny the obvious?” I whispered, lips curling. “Selene was naive enough to sip from a cup she didn’t pour, the sealed her fate the moment she thought she could wear a crown made for me“)
Elder Myron Binchor, just ghtly. But I now II. OI, I saw ILX
“You’ll be tried,” he said suffly “The council will not tolerate-“))
“The council will do what it always doen. What it must do to survive?
He looked away, jaw light. That was the truth of it, wasn’t it? This wasn’t about laws or honor. It was about balance. Preservation, Frat They didn’t want a challenge to taxdition. Selene was that challenge, Wild. Free. Unmannered
I was order Control Legacy
“What if I told you” I said softly, “that the mating bond is illegitimate? That under council law, it doesn’t hold?
He frowned 11 was witnessed.“)
“But not marked Not completed by ritual. And under the influence of the Elixir? It wasn’t consent. It was compulsion.”
His gazn darkened, but I pressed on
“You think this technicality will save you?
“No” I said simply “Tut it will save you’ll
That was the real threat Not me Chaos Rebellion. A pack tom in two. Elders dragged into arguments they couldn’t win. Blood on marble floors: Wolves haning on each other!
I med my back to tam, walked to the small barred window high above and spoke without looking back. “I give you an option, Elder. Recognize the bond as null. Reinstate me as Head Mate. Or fracture the Pack forever“).
The silence stretched, thick and colled like a waiting serpent Then, he tumed and walked away. Victory bloomed slow and savage in my
By the next dawn, it had happened Word reached me through the guard who brought my breakfast–a trembling boy with shifty Joose lips. The kind of fool that would crumble under the night pressure E
y eyes and
had been escorted from the council chamber. Her bond declared invalid And me?
7 Still behind b
bars. But not for long
tha annadunistir warm he was antes distad
Later that evening, Elder Brann came He didn’t knock Just appeared like the opportunistic worm he was, robes hips tight with urgency. He did not come to scold. He came to bargain
“The Pack is restless, he said
“Of course it is” I replied, examining my nails. “A storm needs its eye“)
“You put us in a difficult position, Callister
“No Selene put you there. I just illuminated it
dusted with
snow and
He exhaled slowly. “We need time. Time to calm the Pack. To reestablish your as misunderstandings. A mistake of passion and gnef.“%
your image. Time to cleanse the s
scandal and reframe the events
“I see And in retum?”)
“In return, we restore what you lost. Head Mate, Future Luna. Council blessing “l
“And Kade?”
He besitated. “Kade will do what is best for the Pack. He always has ”
“Convince him, then”
Brann said nothing. That was answer enough”
Heaned forward, eyes gleaming. T’ll give you your time. But you give me what I earned. And I want her gone. Not dead. Not disgraced.
Just erased”
“Selene will leave,” he said. “But there must be no more scandal. No more elixirs
Itilted my head. “You have my word”
He studied me, then nodded and left! returned to the center of the cell, sat, and resumed tracing wasn’t marking time.X
ing circles on the floor. But this ti
time. I
I was sketching victory It had begun. Selene’s tears. Kade’s regret And the crown Again.
