The double doors of the ballroom groaned as Hazel pushed them open, and the sudden shift in atmosphere hit me like a physical blow.
The room was packed to maximum capacity, overflowing with hundreds of Silver Ridge pack members who had been rounded up since the early hours of dawn.
The air inside was thick, suffocating, and heavily reeking of nervous wolf sweat and the bitter, volatile scent of collective panic.
Dozens of wolves; warriors, omegas, pups, pack members and elders stood shoulder-to-shoulder, but the usual loud, chatter of the pack was entirely missing.
It was dead silent.
At the very front of the ballroom, sitting behind a long, oak table that had been pulled to the center of the stage, were three wolves who by the looks of it were the Magistrates of the High Priest Council.
They wore dark ceremonial robes stamped with the golden seal of the Elders, their faces expressionless and hard as carved marble.
Alpha Alexander stood just a few feet away from the table, a towering wall of immovable muscle and dark fury, his pitch-black eyes instantly tracking my entrance.
On the opposite side of the stage sat a heavily bandaged Alpha Richard, his face covered in white medical tape from the crushing blows Alpha Alexander had delivered last night, with Beta Jackson and a rigid Klaus flanking his chair.
They all looked miserable and that just made my day brighter.
These exact men had stood over me, looking down at my bleeding form with smirks on their faces.
Now, the tables had completely turned.
Seeing Alpha Richard huddled in his chair, looking like a broken dog instead of the Alpha, filled my chest with a beautiful satisfaction.
Hazel kept a firm, warm grip on my hand, guiding me through the parting sea of wolves until we reached a designated seating area near the side of the stage, entirely sectioned off by a boundary line of quiet, watchful Blood Moon guards.
An elderly wolf with silver hair and eyes that glowed, rapped a heavy wooden gavel against the table, the sharp crack echoing through the cavernous ballroom and silencing the lingering whispers instantly.
“This formal assembly is now called to order under the direct authority of the High Priest Council of Elders,” he announced, his voice carrying a resonance that made the windowpanes vibrate.
“We are here to review the severe, multi-year grievances logged against the administration of the Silver Ridge Pack regarding the illegal treatment of unranked human wards.
Because this is an initial fact-finding hearing, no final judgment or ultimate pack sentence will be passed today.
In accordance with werewolf laws, everyone present will be granted an official opportunity to defend themselves before the Council’s eyes.
My name is Head Magistrate Raphael and I will be heading this assembly.”
The room went even quieter if that was humanly possible.
The dominant aura of the Magistrates pressed down on the crowd, keeping everyone locked in their places.”The floor is open to the accused, Alpha Richard and Beta Jackson.
“Alpha Richard shifted in his seat, his hands shaking with a frantic paranoia as he forced himself to stand up.
He had to use the edge of the table to steady his balance, his body visibly strained from the weight of his own panic.
When he spoke, his voice came out as a rough, wet gargle, completely ruined by his shattered jaw.
Every syllable seemed to cause him immense pain.
“Magistrates…” He wheezed, trying desperately to project a submissive, respectful tone despite the anger flashing in his eyes.
“I appreciate the Council’s…
dedication to protocol.
But I must state for the record that this entire investigation is based on a massive misunderstanding.
The girl, Ella, is a wolf-less human orphan.
She has no supernatural core, no inner beast, and she does not comprehend the complex, physical dynamics required to maintain internal pack discipline.”
Wait what?
What does that even mean.
He took a ragged breath, pointing a trembling, crooked finger toward where I was sitting.
“Our pack has given her a roof and food for nine years out of pure charity.
The injuries she possesses are entirely the result of her own psychological delirium, a tragic side effect of her witnessing her parents’ deaths as a child.
Her mental state causes her to thrash, self-inflict wounds, and attack our own wolves.
Whatever discipline was applied was handled entirely within our laws according to sovereign pack traditions.
The High Priest Council has no legal right to interfere in a localized family matter.”
Okay, I see.
So he was still going by this story.
That I was mad and had hurt myself during one of my episodes.
How crazy does that sound.
I turned my attention to everyone and they were all nodding their heads.
So this is the cooked story everyone has decided to tell.
The pack members and the omegas I worked beside, they were all silently agreeing to the lie.
They wanted to bury me in my own supposed madness just to keep their own hands clean.
Beta Jackson nodded aggressively from behind him, stepping forward to add his support.
“We have kept this territory secure from rogue uprisings for a decade, Magistrates.
To strip our sovereign rights over a single, wolf-less human freak who cannot even shift is an insult to the entire Silver Ridge Pack.”
Freak?
Keep talking Jackson, please keep talking.
The head Magistrate didn’t blink.
He sat in stone-cold silence, letting the two men finish their desperate excuses before he slowly reached down and tapped the digital tablet resting on the oak table.
Instantly, a large blue holographic screen projected into the air above the stage, displaying the crisp photographs Hazel had taken of my body just hours ago.
The white light of the hologram illuminated the dark ballroom, forcing every single member of the pack to stare directly at the evidence.
The screen flashed with the image of my shattered ribs, the deep purple and yellowish bruising covering my stomach, and the unmistakable, deep finger marks printed violently into my shoulder blades, my swollen eyes, my bandaged head.
The brutality of the marks was exposed for everyone to see, glaring under the blue light like a map of my torture.
“Sovereign pack discipline does not include the crushing of a protected human ward’s ribs, Alpha Richard,” the head Magistrate spoke, his voice dropping into a dangerous register.
“Nor does it authorize an Alpha to deliver blows that leave a defenseless girl permanently deafened in one ear.
The medical logs provided by the Blood Moon division completely contradict your claims of self-inflicted delirium.
These are not injuries that someone just gives themselves.”
They already knew about my deaf ear.
Hazel must have mind-linked them about it before we came into the ballroom.
A mind link was a way wolves communicate with each other through their minds without having to open their mouth and talk.
That was one of the perks of having a wolf.
You get to do cool stuff like that.
Even without a formal report written down, the information had moved across the room in a split second, cutting straight through Alpha Richard’s web of lies.
Alpha Richard choked on his own saliva, his fawning smile completely breaking apart as he took a sharp step backward against his chair.
The broad screen above him remained lit, pinning his crimes to the wall while the entire pack watched their untouchable leader begin to unravel.
The head Magistrate lifted his gavel, his dark eyes locked dead onto the trembling leader.
“The Council has reviewed the extensive video testimony and physical records secured by Alpha Alexander.
Because the criminal allegations against your administration involve a severe, malicious breach of the foundational human-preservation acts, this Council decrees that Alpha Richard and Beta Jackson pose an immediate, flight risk to avoid ultimate execution.”
He brought the gavel down with a deafening slam.
The sharp crack of the wood echoed like a thunderclap against the high walls of the ballroom, making the younger wolves in the back row jump.
“By the power vested in the High Priest Council, Alpha Richard and Beta Jackson are hereby stripped of their active pack commands effective immediately.
You are placed under arrest.
You will be bound and transported directly to a secure cells within the central territory of the Council of Elders, where you will remain incarcerated while awaiting your official criminal trial.”
Before Alpha Richard could even open his mouth to scream a protest, three Blood Moon warriors stepped across the stage with lightning speed.
They slammed an iron cuffs around their wrists, wrenching their arms behind their backs with zero mercy.
Alpha Richard let out a muffled, agonized whimper as his broken jaw shifted under the rough handling, his face turning a sickly shade of gray as the guards dragged them out of the side exit of the ballroom.
Jackson tried to dig his heels into the carpet, his chest heaving with a silent, furious growl, but the Blood Moon warriors simply forced him forward, treating the proud Beta like a common criminal.
The crowd of wolves watched in horrified paralysis.
Their untouchable leader was being led away to a maximum-security jail cell like a common criminal, and not a single warrior dared to growl or step forward to stop it.
The very people who used to kick me into the dirt for their own amusement were now holding their breath, their heads bowed low as the crushing weight of the Council’s authority choked out whatever pride they had left.
The head Magistrate cleared his throat, his gaze shifting across the stage until it landed directly onto Klaus, who was still standing perfectly still by his father’s empty chair.
“To prevent this territory from collapsing into total lawlessness and rioting while the trial is prepared, the Council requires a local administrator to maintain the pack defenses,” the Magistrate announced, his voice resonant.
“Klaus, as the true blood heir of the alpha line, you are hereby appointed to oversee the Silver Ridge Pack as the temporary Alpha.
You will handle everything from, maintaining the pack registry, and report directly to our regional inspectors every forty-eight hours.
Do you accept this charge?”
Klaus stepped forward immediately, his face completely calm.
He didn’t look sad, and he didn’t look angry about his father being hauled off to a dark cell.
Instead, a smooth, unreadable mask settled over his features as he bowed his head deeply to the Magistrates.
“I accept the Council’s charge, Magistrates,” Klaus said, his voice entirely polite and steady.
“I will ensure the borders remain pristine and that the pack follows every directive until the final trial.”
As he straightened his spine, lifting his chin, his dark eyes slowly scanned the crowded room until they locked directly onto me sitting in the corner.
He didn’t look like a defeated son; he looked smug, like he had just inherited a throne he had been waiting for his entire life.
The corners of his lips twitched with a satisfaction as he stared through the crowd at my bandaged face, his gaze promising a slow, silent vengeance the second the inspectors turned their backs.
A freezing chill ran straight down my spine.
Klaus was just as wicked, just as calculating, and just as monstrous as his father, and now he held the official Alpha title over the pack.
Before the panic could choke my throat, a broad shadow stepped directly into my line of vision, completely cutting off Klaus’s glaring eyes from my sight.
Alpha Alexander stood between us, his body blocking the entire stage like an unbreakable iron wall.
He didn’t look back at the new temporary Alpha; he simply turned his head slightly toward me, his pitch-black eyes holding a steady, intensity that instantly dissolved the chill in my blood.
“The hearing is adjourned,” he said, his low baritone slicing through the tense atmosphere of the ballroom.
“Gather whatever belongings you have left in this pack, Ella.
We leave for the Blood Moon territory tomorrow.”
The Magistrates stood up, and the tension in the room began to fracture.
Everyone started stepping out of the ballroom, filing through the exit in a hurried, silent rush to go about their day and gossip in the safety of their locked homes.
As the room emptied out, the realization of what had just happened began to twist in my stomach.
The anger I had buried inside my chest during the testimony flared back to life, hot and sharp.
“Why are only Alpha Richard and Beta Jackson getting punished?
What about the rest?
What about what they did to me?
How is that even fair?” I asked Alpha Alexander, turning toward him as my voice shook with a mixture of confusion and hurt.
He gave me this sad smile, his expression softening for a fraction of a second before speaking.
“For one, they are the leaders of this pack and according to what you said, Alpha Richard was the one that started all of this?”
I nodded my head yes, my fingers clenching the edge of my oversized sweater.
“Assuming he didn’t start this, none of the pack members would have followed suit.
None of them would think it was okay to hit and beat you without any consequences.
They saw him do it to you, he ordered them to do it to you, so they were simply following instructions from their Alpha.
Under Council law, the ultimate responsibility falls on the leaders of the pack.”
“But how is that fair to me?” I said, the hot tears finally spilling over my eyelashes and rolling down my cheeks.
They were all going to walk scot-free without paying a single price for what they did to me.
Why was my life always so deeply unfair?
Where is my justice?
I turned to Hazel and pointed a trembling hand directly at her, then shifted my gaze to Mikko and Felix who were now standing beside Alpha Alexander.
“You said I would get my justice, you promised I will get it!
What happened?
Is this what you call justice?
Is this how you help?”
My voice cracked, the desperation tearing from my throat as the silence of the empty ballroom amplified my words.
“How am I supposed to live like this, knowing they got away with everything they did to me!
Yes, Alpha Richard and Beta Jackson were the masterminds, but the others hurt me just as much.
They all took turns breaking me!
When will they get what is coming to them?” I screamed, entirely hopeless.
They were all looking at me speechless as I cried my eyes out, the silence of the room swallowing my grief.
Hazel made a sudden, instinctual move towards me, her blue eyes wide with a deep, aching sympathy, but I stopped her immediately with my hands, stepping back into the shadow of the seats.
I cleaned the fresh tears from my eyes with the back of my sleeve, taking a ragged breath, and immediately let out a dry, bitter laugh that sounded completely hollow in my own ears.
“I am sorry for lashing out.
I shouldn’t have,” I said, my voice dropping back into its usual quiet register.
I forced a small, strained mask over my features.
“Thank you for everything you have done for me so far.
I can’t begin to tell you how much I appreciate it.
Words cannot describe it.
I will go and start packing my things.
I will sleep in my room tonight as it will be my last night here.
Thank you for taking me in, I promise you won’t regret it.
See you tomorrow,” I said, forcing a weak smile at them before turning around on my heel to walk out.
Pack my stuff.
As if.
As I walked down the long corridor toward the exit, I let out another quiet, dry laugh at how incredibly sad it was.
What did I even have to pack?
A broken piece of glass, a stolen bottle of medicine, and a tiny wooden wolf.
I had nothing to my name but the scars on my back, and I was going back to the concrete floor to face my very last night in this pack.
That is so unfair….My poor baby girl.