CHAPTER 21
1400 Words
The Council arrived just before dawn.
Elise stood near the edge of the training grounds, hands clenched into fists as the convoy of sleek black SUVs rolled in through the iron gates.
A procession of wolves in ceremonial uniforms stepped out first; warriors who were likely handpicked to escort the Elders.
Then came the Council.
Four figures cloaked in deep, forest-green robes, each with a silver sash draped across their shoulders, stepped out in unison.
The air grew colder, more tense.
Elise could feel the weight of their presence before they even spoke.
It wasn’t power she sensed—but judgment.
Kai moved to stand beside her. “You don’t have to face them alone,” he murmured.
She didn’t answer, eyes fixed on the group moving toward the main hall.
She knew she’d stutter if she answered.
She had to save her breath so as to not stutter when the council questioned her.
All the tears she grew up wolfless, the council didn’t care about her.
Now, she was still wolfless but with a glow, they now cared about her and didn’t let her sleep a wink since they came in as early as dawn.
Her pulse thudded against her ribs.
She felt like she was being led to trial.
Because, in many ways in reality, she was.
The pack gathered in silence.
Elise stood before the Council in the war room, Kai to her right, Lucien further behind.
Elder Kion stood by the window with arms crossed, his expression unreadable.
One of the Council Elders stepped forward. Elder Marcellus.
His long silver hair was tied at the base of his neck, and his eyes were like chipped stone—cold, cracked, ancient.
“Elise Thorne,” he said, voice ringing through the room. “We’ve heard disturbing reports.”
She nodded. “I figured.”
A second Elder, a woman with a sharp nose and tighter lips, stepped forward. Elder Vira. “You claim to have awakened powers linked to the Moonbreathers.”
“I didn’t claim anything,” Elise replied evenly. “But something happened during the attack last night. You all probably saw the footage.”
“We did,” Marcellus said, folding his hands. “And what we saw was unnatural. You were glowing—your eyes, your body, even the air around you shifted. No wolf can do that.”
“I know,” she said quietly.
Elder Vira narrowed her eyes. “Then what are you?”
“I don’t know yet. I’m trying to figure that out.”
“Convenient,” said the third Elder, a grizzled man with a faded scar down his jawline.
Elder Thorne—no relation to her. “Powerful abilities with no control, no training, and no record of ancestry to explain them? You could be a threat planted by the enemy.”
Elise flinched. “I’m not working with the Shadowborn.”
“How do we know that?” Vira pressed. “They came for you. They called you ‘the bridge.’ That’s no coincidence.”
“I grew up here. You all might not have noticed, but I actually grew up here and was stepped on and bullied by wolves”.
“But of course, no one would notice a helpless girl who needed help that didn’t concern them till she needed help that now concerned them.”
Kai took a step forward. “She didn’t choose them. She stood her ground against them, and she saved us.”
“She glowed,” Vira snapped. “She frightened half the warriors on the field.”
“Because they didn’t understand what they were seeing!” Kai snapped back.
“Enough,” Marcellus said, lifting a hand. “This discussion is about the safety of the pack, not emotions.”
Kai clenched his jaw, but stepped back.
Elder Kion finally spoke. “I’ve spoken with her. She’s telling the truth about not knowing. But we can’t ignore what she is—or might become.”
Marcellus turned to Elise again. “Have you had any visions, dreams, or heard voices since this power awakened?”
Her throat went dry. She hesitated.
Lucien nodded at her from behind.
“Yes,” she said finally. “I’ve been dreaming for weeks. But I don’t understand them yet. The voices… they speak of bridges, of balance. Of something being taken from me.”
The Council exchanged looks.
“Classic signs of Shadowborn interference,” said Elder Thorne.
“Or of a deeper prophecy,” Kai said, his voice low.
“Or madness,” Vira added coldly.
Elise’s hands tightened at her sides. “You’re all so quick to condemn me, but none of you were there last night. None of you saw what I saw. Felt what I felt. I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t want to be anything but a normal wolf. But that choice was never mine.”
“You’re right,” Marcellus said. “It’s not your choice. It’s ours.”
He turned to Kion. “She should be isolated until we can determine the extent of her powers. Monitored. Possibly relocated to a neutral territory.”
“What?” Kai’s voice cracked with disbelief. “You’re talking about locking her away?”
“For the safety of the pack,” Vira said.
“I’ve done nothing wrong!” Elise said, stepping forward. “You’re punishing me for something I didn’t even know was inside me.”
“That something nearly blinded our seers watching the battle through the Oracle stones,” Thorne said. “You’re a disturbance to the natural order.”
Elise’s heart pounded so hard she thought it might burst.
“You want to treat me like a weapon. Or worse, like a virus. I’ve lived my whole life trying to survive, trying to belong somewhere. I finally feel like I do—and now you want to rip it away.”
“You were never part of the natural order,” Vira said, with cold finality. “You were merely hiding within it.”
Kai stepped in front of Elise. “You will not take her.”
Marcellus sighed. “Your emotions cloud your judgment, Alpha.
We’ll bring this matter before the Grand Council.
Until then, we advise that she be removed from pack activities.”
“Advise,” Kai repeated. “Not command. I’m still the Alpha here.”
“That title means nothing if you endanger your people.”
Lucien stepped forward. “You’re wrong. The people aren’t endangered by Elise. They’re afraid of what they don’t understand. That’s not on her—that’s on us.”
Marcellus looked between the three of them.
“You have until the Grand Council meeting to prove otherwise. Until then, if she manifests more power without control… she’ll be labeled a rogue force.”
“I seriously don’t know why you’re hell bent on keeping a time bomb with you”. Elder Kion said, switching glances at Lucien and Kai.
“Are you both in love with the threat?.. or is it just Kai while Lucien is trying to cover up for him?”
“I’m disappointed in you both. You chose to talk back to the elders because of a threat in female clothing!”. He snapped, storming out of the room.
With that, the Council turned and exited the room, leaving behind a suffocating silence.
Elise didn’t breathe until she heard the last of their steps fade down the hall.
Then she turned, grabbing the edge of the table to steady herself.
“I knew they’d hate me,” she whispered. “But I didn’t think it’d hurt this much.”
Kai put a hand on her back. “They’re wrong. We’ll make them see that.”
“Will we?” she asked. “Or will I end up exactly what they say I am?”
“The threat”, she said, raising her index and middle fingers up in quote sarcastically.
Lucien exhaled, rubbing the back of his neck. “We’ll figure it out. But we need to be careful. If they escalate this… they might send Enforcers next time.”
Elise nodded slowly. Her future, once uncertain, now felt like a knife’s edge.
She wasn’t sure what hurt more—the Council’s disapproval, or the seed of doubt they’d planted in her own heart.
- Writer
