Alpha Keith POV
“If Willow Blackwood is allowed to stand before the Council and reject a sanctioned alliance without consequence, then every ambitious fool with a grievance gets a new script. Daughters start running. Sons start challenging. Packs start pretending agreements are optional if emotion enters the room.” My voice dropped. “That kind of weakness spreads.”
Grayson swallowed. “And Damian?”
“What about him?”
“If this becomes a direct challenge between Alphas—”
“It won’t.”
But it could. The possibility thrilled something ugly in me. If Damian insisted on turning this into a line in the sand, if he stood in that chamber with all that cold control of his and tried to make himself a shield between me and what was mine, then this would stop being a matter of Council pressure and st
