The quietness in the grand courtyard was thick, heavy, and suffocating. The orange light from the roaring pitch-torches flickered violently across the pale, tortured face of Alpha Duncan as he knelt on the cold cobblestones. He was a mountain of a man, yet he looked entirely broken, his golden eyes wide with a desperate, pleading agony as he waited for her response.
Beside him, Beta Silas and Lady Elena stood like twin statues of victory. Elena kept her arms crossed over her rich silver gown, a smug, venomous smirk fixed tightly on her lips. Silas grinned openly, his dark eyes tracking every shift in Hazel’s expression. The hundreds of assembled pack warriors and visiting delegates pressed closer to the central dirt ring, their low, angry growls rising like a gathering storm.
"Answer the
