REJECTED BY ONE ALPHA, CLAIMED BY HIS DEADLIEST RIVAL

THE COUNCIL SESSION

"You can't go to that council session," Lucien said.

"I wasn't asking permission."

"Ariana, listen to me."

"No, you listen." She turned to face him fully, chin lifted despite the exhaustion pulling at every part of her. "That council is deciding my fate right now. Whether I'm handed back to Silverfang, whether I'm hunted for some bloodline I didn't even know I had. I'm not sitting in a room upstairs while strangers argue over my life."

"It's not safe."

"Nothing has been safe since last night."

Lucien's jaw worked, frustration and something softer warring behind his eyes. "If you walk into that session, Kael will use it. Every word you say, every reaction, he'll twist it into proof of whatever argument he's making."

"Then I won't give him anything to twist."

"You say that now."

"I mean it now." She crossed her arms. "I've spent my whole life letting other people decide things about me. My rank. My worth. Whether I deserved to be rejected in front of an entire pack. I'm done doing that."

Something shifted in Lucien's expression, reluctant respect breaking through the worry.

"Fine," he said. "But you stay beside me. Not behind me this time. Beside me."

"I can agree to that."

Mira appeared in the doorway before either of them could say more, expression tight. "The council's assembling. Halvard sent word they want to begin within the hour."

"Is Kael already there?" Lucien asked.

"Arrived twenty minutes ago. With an escort twice the size he brought to the parley." Mira's eyes flicked to Ariana. "He's not hiding how much this matters to him anymore."

"Good," Ariana said. "Neither am I."

The council chamber was different from the main hall, smaller, older, stone walls lined with tapestries depicting wolves locked in combat and treaties signed in blood. Elders from both packs occupied opposite sides of a long table, tension thick enough to taste.

Kael sat near the head of the Silverfang side, Selene Voss beside him, her expression carefully neutral in a way that made Ariana's skin crawl.

"Alpha Blackthorn." An elder Ariana didn't recognize, silver haired and stern, gestured toward empty seats. "And the girl in question herself, I see."

"I have a name," Ariana said before Lucien could respond for her.

The elder's eyebrows rose slightly. "Indeed you do. Ariana Ashford. Formerly of Silverfang."

"Formerly," Kael repeated, voice low. "That's the matter at hand, isn't it. Whether that rejection was ever legally binding given what she apparently is."

"Explain," the elder said.

Kael's eyes cut to Ariana, something complicated flickering behind them. "Rejection severs the mate bond, but pack membership is a separate matter. If Ariana Ashford carries Moonblood lineage, Silverfang has a legitimate claim to her regardless of the personal rejection. Bloodlines of that significance don't simply leave with an omega who happens to flee."

"She's not property," Lucien said, voice flat.

"No one said she was." Selene's voice slid into the conversation, smooth and deliberate. "But surely you understand our concern, Alpha Blackthorn. A bloodline capable of shifting the balance of power between packs shouldn't simply be handed to whichever Alpha happened to find her first."

"I didn't find her like some stray," Lucien said. "I offered her protection after your pack left her for dead in the woods."

"A generous framing," Kael said quietly, "for what looks a great deal like opportunity."

"Careful, Draven."

"I'm simply stating what every wolf at this table is already thinking."

The room fell into murmurs, elders exchanging glances, and Ariana felt the weight of dozens of eyes shifting toward her again.

"May I speak?" she asked.

The silver haired elder studied her a moment before nodding. "You may."

Ariana stood, forcing steadiness into her spine despite the way her heart hammered against her ribs.

"I didn't know what I supposedly am until last night," she said. "Not from anyone in this room, not from Kael, not from the elders who apparently already suspected something about my mother's bloodline and said nothing. I found out from strangers who ambushed us at the border and seemed far more interested in what I represent than who I actually am."

"That doesn't change the legal question," Kael said.

"No," Ariana agreed. "It doesn't. But it does raise a different one." Her eyes moved to the Silverfang elders. "If you knew something about my bloodline, why hide it? Why let me grow up believing I was ordinary, unworthy of training, unworthy of respect, only to suddenly care the moment strangers in the woods called me valuable?"

Silence spread through the chamber.

"That's an unfair characterization," the silver haired elder said carefully.

"Is it?" Ariana held his gaze. "Because from where I'm standing, it looks like Silverfang only wants me back now that I'm worth something to someone else."

Kael's expression tightened, something unreadable moving behind his eyes.

"That's not why I want you back," he said quietly.

"Then why, Kael?" Her voice cracked despite herself. "Because it certainly wasn't concern for my wellbeing when you rejected me in front of the entire pack."

He didn't answer immediately, and for a moment the whole room seemed to hold its breath.

"The council will deliberate," the silver haired elder finally said, breaking the tension. "Both sides will be heard fully before any ruling is made."

"How long will that take?" Lucien asked.

"Matters of bloodline claims require careful consideration. Days, at minimum. Perhaps longer."

"Days," Kael repeated, something sharp entering his voice. "While she remains under Blackthorn protection."

"Do you have a better suggestion, Alpha Draven?"

Kael's eyes moved to Ariana, lingering there a moment too long before he answered.

"Yes," he said quietly. "I do."

The chamber went still.

"Let her choose," Kael said. "Publicly. In front of both packs. If she chooses Blackthorn freely, I'll withdraw every claim against her. But if there's any part of her that still feels the bond between us, I want the chance to prove I deserve a second one."

Ariana's breath caught in her throat.

Beside her, she felt Lucien go rigid, and when she glanced up at him, the look on his face wasn't anger.

It was fear.