bChapter /bb266 /b

ra’s POV

“Stand aside. I asked for an audience, not a cell.”

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Mi’s voice carried clear across the grand hall before the doors even closed. She wasn’t cloaked in shame now. Her spine was straight, her steps unhurried, her bare feet deliberate on the stone.

Cael leaned on the high seat, arms crossed. “You asked for a trial. You’ll get it. Speak.”

She didn’t face him. Her eyes swept the Alphas and officers crowding the benches. “Every one of you knows it. The alliance is broken. You drag your packs to drills you cannot win. You listen ito /iorders from a brother who bleeds your warriors dry and a Gamma who was once thrown away. And for what? To hold a banner that no longer protects you.”

A ripple of murmurs moved through the chamber.

I stepped forward. “They’re not here for your theatrics. Say what you came to say.”

Her smile flickered sharp. “Fine. I came to offer them a choice. Stand under Cael’s failing rule, or stand with me. The exiled have returned. They do not beg for scraps. They promisend. Coin. And protection. All they ask is loyalty to the new order.”

Gasps. A chair scraped. Garron, Thorne’s captain, shot to his feet. “Treason!”

Mi turned her chin toward him, then higher, her gazending where Thorne sat among his officers. “Direstone doesn’t need to bleed for BloodMoon’s vanity. You could walk with me, Thorne. Take your wolves, take yournd, and no one would touch you.”

The silence was heavier than steel. Eyes swung to him. Even Cael’s jaw tightened.

I cut in, voice steady. “Hear the truth in her words. She’s not promising unity. She’s promising division. If you follow her, you follow war.”

“War is already here,” she snapped. “You heard the hornsst night. You saw your gates tested. Next time, they won’t leave with a scratch, they’ll leave with your heads. Stand with me, and that bloodshed ends before it

starts.”

Across the chamber, Alpha Drevan of Wyrmshade shifted in his seat. “If she has exiled Alphas at her back—”

Cael mmed a hand against the arm of his chair. “Silence. You would lend an ear to a traitor?”

Drevan swallowed hard, but didn’t speak again. The hesitation was enough. I could see it–the rot she nted taking root in the cracks.

I stepped closer, my voice sharp. “She tempts you with stolen power. But you saw the proof: her ring, her meetings, her bBeta /binformant caught red–handed. She doesn’t want peace, she wants a throne.”

Mi’s lips curved. “And what do you want, ra? To keep kneeling as your brother’s shadow? To y Gamma forever while the men around you fail?”

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The hall shifted. My chest tightened, but I didn’t flinch. “I want what you fear most. A united pack that doesn’t need you.”

Her gaze

slid

past me again,nding squarely on Thorne. She lifted her hand, palm open, ring glinting. “You don’t have to answer me. Just stand. Just stand ande to my side. Show them where you belong.”

The chamber froze. I could feel the air hitch in every throat. Even my own.

Thorne’s eyes locked on hers for a long beat. Old history burned between them. Then, slowly, he rose. My heart mmed once, hard.

He turned–not to her, but toward me. He crossed the floor, boots echoing, and stopped at my side. He didn’t touch me. He didn’t need to. His silence was louder than any speech.

Mi’s face cracked. Just once. Then the mask snapped back, her voice sharp as ss. “So you choose chains over freedom.”

Thorne finally spoke, low, steady. “I choose the fight that matters.”

The chamber erupted–half with outrage, half with relief. Cael’s fist hit the arm of his chair again, this time with grim satisfaction.

I lifted my chin, voice carrying over the noise. “The line is drawn. Who stands with BloodMoon?”

One by one, Alphas rose. Some slower than others, but they rose. The fracture Mi wanted began to close.

She sank back in her seat, ring catching the torchlight, eyes dark with fury. “You think this ends me? This is only the beginning.”

I leaned close enough that only she could hear. “Then you’ve already lost. Because beginnings are mine.”

11:50 Wed, Sep b24 /b