REJECTED BY HER MATE, DESIRED BY THE LYCAN KING

02~Interrogation

Wren

I stood outside the council chamber and waited to be called in; I could already hear low voices arguing about something on the other side of the door.

Stepping inside, my eyes scanned the room briefly. No one was paying me any attention, they were fixated on a scroll spread across the table. They looked tired and irritated.it reminded me of the closed-door meetings my father used to hold when I was a girl, the ones I was never allowed to attend.

Stepping further inside, I let the door shut behind me. The tallest man in the room stood near the head of the table, listening to the argument without joining it.

That had to be the one they were all deferring to.

He didn't look up right away, arms crossed, watching the elders bicker over something I couldn't make out from the doorway. It wasn't until he finally turned his head that I saw his face clearly.

It was him…

The man from the boundary line. The man I'd kissed in the dark without knowing his name.

The man I'd handed my worst moment to was standing at the head of a council table I'd never even been allowed near before, and there was nowhere left to disappear to.

I couldn't believe the stranger from last night was sitting in on a closed council session about me. Suddenly the room felt smaller than it had any right to.

He looked different in the light, though no less unsettling. His jaw was set, none of the amusement from the night before was anywhere on his face now. His eyes, when they lifted and found mine, were the same pale grey, except now they gave away absolutely nothing.

My face went hot the second he looked at me.

"You're the girl from the boundary line," the head elder said,gesturing for me to sit. "Please. We have questions, and given the circumstances, we'd like them answered quickly."

"Of course," I said, taking the seat across from all of them, especially him.

"Your mate bond dissolution leaves your status... unusual," the elder continued, glancing at a scroll in front of him. "A rejection at the ceremony typically closes cleanly. But a witnessed encounter on pack land the same night, with an unidentified wolf, complicates the record."

"It wasn't anything," I said quickly. "I wasn't thinking clearly. It won't happen again."

"That's not entirely up to you to decide," the man said.

It was the first thing he'd said since I walked in, I looked at him, waiting for something, an apology, an explanation, anything.

He gave me nothing.

"I don't understand why he's even in this room," I said, before I could stop myself, my voice was sharper than I meant. "This is a pack matter. He isn't pack."

"He's here because the encounter falls under his jurisdiction," the elder said carefully. "Boundary incursions involving unclaimed wolves are reported to the crown as a matter of course."

The crown?

I didn't understand the weight in that word yet, only that his jaw tightened slightly when it was said, like he hadn't wanted it mentioned at all.

"I have training in diplomacy and pack law," I said, sitting up straighter, refusing to let my voice shake. "If there's a formal process for this, I can walk through it myself. I don't need it explained to me like I'm a child who wandered off."

"This isn't about your competence," He said once again,while glaring coldly at me. "It's about protocol."

"I don't have time to sit through a protocol I already understand," I said. "Tell me what's actually required, and I'll do it."

"I can walk her through it," a voice said from near the back of the room, and an older woman stepped forward, setting down the scroll she'd been holding.

She had a kind, weathered face; her grey hair was pulled into a simple knot. Her eyes were warm, watching me with something like sympathy.

"I don't mind explaining the paperwork," she said, glancing between me and the man. "It's tedious. No reason to make her sit through the whole session for it."

"Fine,"He said, and looked back down at the scroll in front of him without another word.

"I'm Elwen," the woman said, holding out a hand. I took it, grateful for the ordinary gesture.

"Wren," I said in return.

"I already know who you are, dear." Her smile was gentle. "News like last night's finds its way to everyone eventually. I'm sorry you're here for this on top of it."

I managed a small, tired laugh. "Thank you. Really."

She opened her mouth to say more, but stopped when the chamber door opened again and Freya walked in, uninvited with Richard trailing a step behind her like he hadn't wanted to come.

"I thought I'd find you here," Freya said, eyes sweeping the room before landing on me. "Still trying to make yourself relevant, even after all that."

I raised my brows; she was accusing me of that, after everything she and Richard had done in front of the whole pack?

"I shouldn't be surprised," she went on as her tone turned icy just as her gaze slid toward the man, who hadn't looked up. "Considering how fast you moved on to someone new the same night. Guess Richard was right to walk away."

"I'm here to answer the council's questions," I said. "Nothing more."

That made her laugh. "Please. The only thing you're answering for is how quickly you embarrass yourself twice in one day."

"She's here at the council's request," Elwen said quietly.

"That's rich, coming from a scribe," Freya sneered, and Elwen's expression flickered. "Your opinion isn't exactly weighted in this room."

Elwen's jaw tightened, her eyes dropping briefly to the scroll in her hands.

"Enough, Freya," someone near the door murmured, though it didn't slow her down at all.

"Scribes don't get a say," Freya continued, undeterred, eyes flicking back to me. "But I suppose that makes two of you today, one who can't hold a mate, and one who never held any standing to begin with."

I stood, stepping between her and Elwen before I'd fully decided to.

"You don't get to decide anyone's worth in this room," I said. "I've watched her show more decency in the last five minutes than you've managed in longer than that. This council has actual work to do. Maybe find somewhere else to start your nonsense ."

Freya's mouth thinned, and for once, she had nothing ready to fire back with.

"As for Richard," I added, holding her gaze, "he clearly wasn't man enough to handle either of us honestly. Congratulations. You got exactly what was left of him.”