HIS SAVAGE VOW

On Trial

Chapter 7: On Trial*

The Council chamber smelled like old stone, cold iron, and decades of grudges left to rot.

Every step I took on the marble floor echoed too loud. Five years of building a life in the human world, and it all came down to this room.

Kade’s hand was warm against mine. Not holding tight. Just there. A reminder I wasn’t walking in alone.

Damon was already waiting in the center of the semicircle. Suited, composed, smirking like he’d won before I even opened my mouth. Three elders sat to his left. The ones he’d bought with favors and old promises. I recognized Elder Voss. He’d been the one to witness my original contract signing. His eyes didn’t meet mine.

Coward.

“Selene Vance,” Elder Mara’s voice cut through the silence. It bounced off the vaulted ceiling and landed hard in my chest. “You stand accused of abandoning your pack, refusing your contracted mate, and endangering the Council’s authority. How do you plead?”

“Not guilty,” I said.

My voice didn’t shake. I’d spent the last four hours telling myself I wouldn’t let them see me break. Not again.

Damon stepped forward, all smooth confidence and practiced outrage. “Not guilty? She left. That’s abandonment. She signed the contract. That’s binding. She broke her bond for two years and now she walks back in like nothing happened. Where’s the defense?”

I felt Kade’s jaw tighten beside me. Through the bond, a sharp spike of anger flared—hot, protective, barely leashed.

_Let me speak,_ he said in my head.

_Not yet._

I squeezed his hand once and let go. This was mine.

“The contract was signed under duress,” I said, looking straight at Mara. “I was seventeen. My mother was sick. Damon threatened to pull her treatment if I didn’t sign. I didn’t know what it meant. I didn’t know I had a choice.”

Murmurs rippled through the chamber. Elder Voss shifted in his seat.

“Duress?” Damon laughed. It was ugly. “You chose to run. You chose to hide in the human world like a coward. You chose to break your bond. That’s not duress. That’s betrayal.”

He was trying to make me angry. To make me lose control. If the wolf surfaced, they’d have their excuse to declare me unstable. Rogue.

I kept my hands open at my sides. Hands steady. Voice steady.

Don’t think. Don’t feel. Don’t remember.

Don’t let the wolf surface.

“Betrayal?” I said quietly. “You want to talk about betrayal? Let’s talk about how you used my mother’s illness to force my signature. Let’s talk about how you told the Council I’d agreed to be your Luna when I’d never even met you properly. Let’s talk about how you’ve been using that contract to hunt me for five years.”

Damon’s smirk faltered.

“That’s slander,” he said. “And irrelevant. The contract stands.”

I turned to Mara. “Slander is a lie. I have the hospital records. I have the recording of the call where he threatened me. I didn’t bring them because I didn’t think you’d care. But if you want proof, I can give it to you.”

Mara’s eyes narrowed. She didn’t look at Damon.

“Evidence will be considered after the hearing,” she said. “For now, we address the bond.”

Of course. The bond.

“The bond was broken,” Damon said quickly. “She severed it. No wolf can survive that without going mad. She’s dangerous.”

I felt Kade go still beside me.

“She didn’t sever it,” he said, and this time I didn’t stop him. His voice was low, rough, carrying in the silent chamber. “She suppressed it. There’s a difference.”

All eyes turned to him.

“You were there, Blackwood,” Elder Voss said. “You let her go.”

“I was wrong,” Kade said. No hesitation. No pride getting in the way. “I thought controlling her was protecting her. I thought if I made the choices, she’d be safe. I was wrong.”

Damon scoffed. “Sentimental nonsense. She’s back because the bond forced her. She’s not here by choice.”

“Is she?” Mara asked, looking at me.

I stepped forward again.

“No,” I said. “The bond didn’t drag me back. Damon’s contract did. But I’m staying because I chose to. Because for the first time in five years, I’m not being forced to choose between myself and the pack.”

I held out my hand.

Kade took it without hesitation.

Heat shot through me immediately. Gold light flickered under my skin, faint but visible. It traced up my wrist, across my knuckles, where our hands met. The bond opened, careful and deliberate. Not a cage. Not a leash. A connection.

Gasps echoed through the chamber. Even Mara sat forward.

Through the bond, I let them feel it. Just a fragment. Enough.

Kade’s regret. Raw and sharp, five years old and still fresh.

His restraint. The way he’d bitten his tongue in the ER when I told him to back off.

His fear—not for himself, but for me.

And underneath it all, respect.

I didn’t force it. I didn’t manipulate it. I just stopped hiding it.

Kade’s voice came through, low and rough, but the elders heard it too. I hurt her. I tried to control her. I lost her because of it. I won’t make that mistake again.

The chamber went dead silent.

Elder Mara’s expression was unreadable. Elder Voss looked like he’d bitten into something sour. Damon’s face had gone pale.

“Control is the duty of an Alpha, Blackwood,” Mara said finally.

“Protection is,” Kade replied. “Control without consent is tyranny. And I won’t be a tyrant over her. Not again.”

Damon slammed his fist on the stone table. The sound cracked through the room.

“Then the contract stands! She belongs to me! You can’t just ignore five years of legal binding because you had a moment!”

I stepped forward until I was level with him. Close enough to see the sweat beading at his temple.

“No,” I said. “I don’t belong to anyone. Not you. Not Kade. Not the Council.”

I turned back to Mara. My heart was hammering, but my voice stayed steady.

“If you declare me rogue, you declare war on every she-wolf who wants to choose her own life. So decide. Is the Council about order? Or is it about fear?”

The silence that followed was worse than yelling.

Mara looked at the other elders. They were whispering now, heads bent together. Damon was sweating openly. He knew. The bond had changed things. You can’t argue against something that is visible, that real. Something that didn’t feel like possession.

It felt like a choice.

Mara stood. The gavel in her hand looked old enough to have declared a dozen lives forfeit.

“The hearing is adjourned for one hour,” she said. “We will deliberate.”

The sound of the gavel hitting the stone made my knees weak.

The moment we were outside the chamber doors, Kade pulled me into the alcove. Away from the guards, away from Damon’s eyes.

“You okay?” he asked.

I exhaled for the first time since walking in. The air felt different. Lighter.

“Yeah,” I said. “I am.”

He touched my face, thumb brushing my cheek like he was checking if I was real.

“You were incredible in there.”

“I had help,” I said.

Kade’s eyes softened. “No. That was all you.”

Before I could answer, Damon’s voice cut through the moment like a blade.

“This isn’t over, Selene.”

I turned. He stood ten feet away, flanked by two enforcers. His jaw was tight, eyes dark with something that wasn’t anger anymore. It was desperation.

“It is,” I said. “Unless you want to lose in front of the whole Council.”

He stepped closer. Kade shifted, moving half a step in front of me. Not aggressive. Just there. A wall without making it a fight.

“You think the bond makes you safe?” Damon said, voice low enough that only we could hear. “It makes you a target. If you’re not mine, someone else will take you. And Kade won’t be able to stop them. The Council won’t let a rogue mate walk free.”

Kade’s shoulders tensed.

“Try it.”

Damon smiled, cold and ugly.

“Oh, I will.”

Mara’s voice called from the chamber doors, echoing down the hall.

“The elders have reached a decision.”

Kade glanced at me. His silver eyes were steady, but I could feel his heartbeat through the bond. Fast. Too fast.

“Ready?”

I nodded. My hands weren’t shaking.

Whatever they said next, I wasn’t running.

We walked back into the chamber together.

Mara stood at the center, flanked by the other elders. Damon stood on one side, smug again. He knew something we didn’t.

Mara looked at me. Then at Kade. Then at the bond, still faintly glowing under my skin.

“The Council has considered the evidence,” she said. “And the state of the bond.”

My mouth went dry.

“We cannot ignore a contracted mate,” Mara said. “The law is clear.”

Damon’s smile widened.

“But,” Mara continued, “the law also recognizes duress. And it recognizes the autonomy of a bonded pair, provided the bond is mutual and uncoerced.”

The words hit me like a physical blow.

Mara’s eyes were sharp.

“The Council rules as follows: Selene Vance will remain in pack territory under observation for thirty days. During this time, the validity of the bond between her and Alpha Blackwood will be assessed. Damon Croft’s contract is suspended pending this assessment.”

Damon’s face went red.

“That’s not—”

“Suspended,” Mara said firmly. “Not voided. If the bond is proven false or coerced, the contract will be enforced. If it is proven true and mutual, the contract will be dissolved.”

Thirty days.

Thirty days to prove to a room of elders that what Kade and I had wasn’t possession. That it was a choice.

Damon looked like he wanted to argue. But the gavel came down before he could.

“The court dismissed,” Mara said.

People started moving. Whispers filled the room. I felt eyes on me—curious, hostile, calculating.

Kade pulled me close, low enough that only I could hear.

“Thirty days,” he said. “We can do thirty days.”

I nodded.

“We have to.”

Damon brushed past us on his way out, shoulder bumping mine hard enough to sting.

“You’re not safe here, Selene,” he murmured. “Thirty days is a long time for accidents to happen.”

Kade stepped between us before I could answer.

“Touch her again, and the contract will be the least of your problems.”

Damon just smiled.

“Try and stop me.”

He left.

The chamber emptied quickly after that. Only Mara remained, watching us from the dais.

“You have thirty days,” she said. “Don’t waste them.”

We nodded.

The second we were outside, the weight of it hit me. Thirty days. Thirty days of living under a microscope. Thirty days of Damon looking for a way to break us.

Kade put his hand on the small of my back, guiding me toward the exit.

“Come on,” he said. “You haven’t slept. You need food. And we need a plan.”

I didn’t argue. I couldn’t.

As we stepped out into the cold evening air, I realized something.

I wasn’t afraid anymore.

Not Damon. Not of the Council.

Not even Kade.

For the first time in five years, I felt like I had a choice.

And I was going to fight like hell to keep it.

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