Mated to my target

Seven against one

SELENE'S POV

It had been two weeks since I woke up in their stronghold. Two weeks since I was brought into the Duskblood pack, after seven years of searching and fate just dropped me right inside their walls.

I still did not know why they came for us that night. What my parents had or knew that made them worthy of being destroyed. That question had lived in my chest so long it felt like a part of me.

I remember the screams of the Viremont household like it was yesterday, the fire. The silver spear that pinned my father to the floor while flames crept closer and he screamed at me to run.

I had been looking for answers for seven years and I wasn't about to waste this chance.

Today was the day my fate would be decided. So I'm going to perform. I had not come this far to lose in a courtroom.

The pack court was a long stone room with high ceilings and seven elders sitting behind a raised table looking at me the way people look at something they have already decided was a problem.

I stood in the centre of the room alone. I had imagined this moment a hundred times. In none of those imaginations had I felt this exposed.

The door opened.

Draven walked in first, Lily a step behind him, Draven took his position to the side of the room, arms crossed. Face unreadable. Lily took her seat quietly to the right. Neither of them looked at me directly.

But I felt Draven the moment he walked in. The bond did not care about courtrooms, elders, or seven years of carefully constructed walls. It just pulled. Completely unbothered by how badly timed it was.

I looked away from him before he could catch me looking.

The silver-haired elder in the centre cleared his throat. "We will begin," he said.

"Let us be direct," the silver-haired elder said, leaning forward with his hands flat on the table.

"You were found inside an enemy's stronghold during a raid. Caged with other omegas." He paused. "What we want to know is how you got there. And more importantly, were you put there on purpose?"

The room went very still.

"You think I chose to be in a cage?" I asked, still being careful with my choice of words.

"That wouldn't be the first time someone used a cage as a cover. A spy who gets herself captured looks like a victim so she could get into this stronghold.

"If I were a spy," I said quietly, " I would have come up with a better story than this."

The younger elder at the end of the table leaned forward."Or you came up with exactly the kind of story that sounds too simple to be a lie."

"State your name," the silver-haired elder continued.

"Selene," I gave them just the name just like I did with Lily.

"Full name."

"Just Selene. I stopped using my family's name a long time ago."

He wrote something down without looking up. "Where are you from?"

"Eastfield," I said. "Originally. I left two years ago."

"Eastfield," Another elder cut in. "Eastfield pack is one of the most documented packs in this region. They keep records of every wolf that has ever passed through their territory." So if you are from Eastfield there will be a record of you."

"I left under difficult circumstances," I said. "My departure was not formal."

"Every departure from Eastfield is formal," the younger elder said. "That's the point. Their Alpha runs one of the tightest administrative packs in the region. Wolves do not just disappear from Eastfield." He leaned forward.

"Which means either you were never there. Or you were erased. And both of those things are a problem."

"An Alpha who assaulted an omega would have every reason to erase her," The words left my mouth before I could stop them.

I made the mistake of looking at Draven. He was already looking at me. He looked like a man who wanted to say something and had no place to say it. I noticed the tension in his jaw before I could stop myself from looking.

"That's a very convenient accusation," the silver-haired elder said quietly, "It is unverifiable, which makes it convenient."

"It's the truth," I said. And something cracked slightly in my voice that I couldn't stop.

"You have no last name," the silver-haired elder said, leaning back in his chair. "No documentation, Nothing that places you anywhere before the night of the raid."

He looked around at others. "Does anyone find that unremarkable?"

"I find it unremarkable," a grey-bearded elder said, his eyes cold and dismissive, as he had already made up his mind before I opened my mouth.

"Every wolf, even packless ones, leaves a trail. This one has nothing. Absolutely nothing. I move that we remove her from the pack immediately.

"The charges before this court are clear," the silver-haired elder declared, his voice dropping into something formal and final.

"Unlawful entry into Duskblood pack, Failure to provide verifiable identity, Suspected spy activity." He looked at me directly.

"The penalties under the pack law range from permanent exile to imprisonment." He paused. "And in case of suspected spy activity, death."

Death.

I had known that it was possible. I had told myself I was prepared for it, but standing here listening to him mention it, I understood for the first time that I had not been prepared for it at all.

"I move that we proceed to the verdict," the elder at the end of the table said. Murmurs of agreement moved around the table.

The silver-haired elder looked at me one last time. "Do you have anything further to say in your defense?"

I opened my mouth, but I had nothing left to defend myself. Every argument I had prepared, every careful answer, none of it had been enough. My parents deserved better than this.

"If I may." Lily's voice cut through the room sharply. Every head including mine turned towards her direction.

She stood slowly. Smoothed her dress and looked at the elders with the quiet authority of a woman who had been born into political intelligence and had spent years sharpening it inside these walls.

"I conducted a personal background investigation during this woman's recovery," she began, her voice steady. "With your permission, I would like to present what I found.

"Yes Luna, you may present it."

"Firstly this is the medical report of Selene's injuries, old wounds, malnutrition, and muscle deterioration which the healer performed." Lily continued, placing a file on the desk and the silver-haired elder picked it up and began glancing through it.

"They are consistent with someone who had been captive for at least one month. I also would like to bring in one of the slaves that was also rescued to identify her." Lily added, gesturing at the door, " Bring her in."

The door swung open and Vivan walked in. She had been in that cage long before I arrived, she had been there the night they threw me in. If anyone knew the truth of what that place was and how long I stayed in that place, it was her.

Vivan was asked a few questions by the elders to prove my identity and she was later escorted out after she confirmed that I had been in that cage for months before the raid.

Lily laid out everything with the calm precision of someone who had been preparing for this moment long before today. She even gave details I had not given her, details I did not know she had.

By the time she finished, the room felt completely different. The silver-haired elder looked at others. Then after a long silent communication, he looked at me.

"The court grants you a stay in this pack but with restricted movement within the pack." He shifted his gaze to Lily. "The court thanks Luna for her thorough investigation."

Lily inclined her head graciously and sat down.

I stood there shocked, The woman who had every reason to want me gone had just saved my life. When I looked at Draven he had the same expression on his face.

"We are done here then." Draven finally spoke for the first time since this meeting started.

Everybody got up and started leaving, but Lily walked up to me and she whispered.

"I saved your life today, You owe me a debt." With that, she left.