The council chamber smelled of incense and old dust, as if wisdom itself had begun to rot. Serena sat straight-backed in the semi-circle formation, flanked by high-ranking elders from three allied packs and most of them old enough to remember the last alpha war firsthand, and all of them looking at her like a stain they couldn’t scrub out of the bloodline.
“This has gone too far.”
It was Elder Ramos who broke the silence first. His voice always carried like thunder across a canyon, thick with judgment. “You’ve pulled our most strategic attention toward human courts, councilwoman Vale. When our borders remain threatened and internal allegiance is thinning. And for what? A personal vendetta against a high politician?”
“He’s not just a politician,” Serena replied evenly, already braced for
