CHAPTER 504: AS A JUSTIFICATION FOR MURDER

As the video call ended, Katelyn lowered the phone onto the coffee table. Sage hugged her from behind, his chin resting gently on her shoulder while his arm circled snugly around her belly. She tilted her head back, smiling as their noses softly brushed. The gentle, intoxicating scent of their pheromones filled the room before they shared a soft kiss. However, both kept the contact gentle, and Sage soon pulled away, maintaining their control.

"Let’s go back to the pack. I’ll finish up the work there, and we are going somewhere special right after," he said with a sincere, promising tone.

"Okay!" Katelyn agreed, attempting to stand up, but his arm tightened playfully, preventing her.

"Let me go. I have to grab the car keys from my room," she whispered, chuckling softly.

"How do you have such good control when you’re this close to your mate?" he murmured against her skin, genuinely curious about her remarkable discipline.

"I don’t know," Katelyn answered honestly. She placed a finger lightly between their lips to stop any further distraction and said, "Let’s not cause any kind of delay." With that, she finally rose to her feet and went to her room. Sage, too, moved to retrieve his phone before stepping out of the house. Once Katelyn returned, he held her hand and led her toward the parked car.

"I will drive," Sage said, extending his hand for the keys.

Katelyn placed the keys into his palm and settled comfortably into the passenger’s seat.

The journey ended after a long drive, and they stepped out in the structured confines of the pack’s home territory. Heading inside, they found his father and some of the respected elders gathered in the living room, deep in discussion over something important.

"The Alpha has returned!" one of the elders announced respectfully. Immediately, all the men left their seats to greet not only Sage, the Alpha, but also Katelyn, acknowledging her status as the Princess of their neighboring realm.

"I am sorry for going off radar for a day," Sage said, walking ahead and still firmly holding Katelyn’s hand, immediately addressing his absence with the pack elders and his father.

"Your father wants a lesser punishment for your stepmother, Sage, considering she has been the Luna of this pack for years," Senior elder Harvey stated. "Also, the full truth has now come out regarding your mother, too. We think that she should have been punished for having an affair with another man, even if she is deceased."

"Wait? Who told you about all of this?" Sage demanded, his brow furrowing instantly in disbelief and anger.

"The whispers can’t be stopped for too long," finally, Mile, Blythe’s brother, spoke, addressing Sage directly. "Indeed, Blythe did something so heinous, but let’s not forget what your mother did to our former Alpha. Sage, if your mother were alive, and such a truth were publicly known, she would have been punished with death," he affirmed. All the elders present nodded solemnly in agreement with him.

Sage let out a short, incredulous chuckle, his composure starting to dangerously slip, but Katelyn’s steady grip on his hand silently grounded him.

"And his mother paid that price with her life," Katelyn intervened.

"I am sorry for interrupting like this, but I think I can give an unbiased opinion on this," Katelyn stated firmly, her clear voice drawing every eye in the room. "The crimes of Mrs. Blythe cannot be ignored, regardless of her former title. I think you all have forgotten the motive behind why she killed Sage’s mother: she hated the fact that Sage would become the next Alpha of this pack."

She paused, letting the weight of her words sink in. "How is murdering someone’s parents, merely out of political spite, justified? Furthermore, granting her leniency will be a profound injustice to Vance."

Katelyn subtly reminded them of her own power. "This pack is a part of my kingdom. If Vance takes this matter to the Royal Court, which he has every right to do, I think the Alpha King will certainly not ignore the misery and loss of a young man who lost everything in a single day due to a conspiracy within this pack."

The elders exchanged uncomfortable glances with each other, their earlier solidarity crumbling under the weight of Katelyn’s politically and morally astute points.

"Sage’s mother got a fate no one even knew about at the hands of Mrs. Blythe. If Blythe truly wanted just treatment for the former Luna’s alleged infidelity, she could have simply told Mr. William about it," Katelyn continued, pressing her advantage. "Instead, she kept such a truth hidden from him as well, using it as a justification for murder."

"The council will start in half an hour," Sage stated firmly, stepping forward to take control of the conversation once more. His voice was now pure Alpha command. "I will see all of you there, and I will personally announce the verdict regarding Blythe’s fate. Now, I don’t need any further arguments on this."

With that, Sage left the elders’ presence, swiftly guiding Katelyn with him. As they stopped inside the relative quiet of his bedroom, Sage let go of her hand and turned, his earlier composure cracking.

"Did you see how my father is hellbent on giving a less harsh punishment to Blythe?" he asked, pacing a few steps. "Yesterday I was thinking about how wrong I did to my Dad. But then he pulls this, and it reminds me he never truly considers my emotions. The pain I underwent, losing my mother and the years of lies, I don’t want any kid to experience that kind of pain."

"Sage, your father has two daughters too, remember? Naomi and Zoey," Katelyn stated gently, stepping toward him. "Maybe he is considering leniency because of them. Also, politically, there is a thin line between Blythe’s crime and what the elders are hinting at your mother did. While I fully support your decision to prosecute Blythe, I also understand the difficult position your father is undergoing in the eyes of the pack."

"I will give her life imprisonment then," Sage affirmed. "She should never breathe the same air as us."