The council's wrath

I was cold.

My wrists ached where the iron shackles bit into my skin. The silver in them burned, not enough to kill me, but enough to remind me that I wasn’t welcome. My feet dragged across the stone floor, slick with dampness and the weight of a thousand footsteps before mine.

The two guards who flanked me didn’t speak. I could recognise them. They were the same ones who carried me from the forest. Their silence screamed louder than words. As we entered the high-ceilinged chamber, I lifted my eyes and saw them— the twelve elders, seated in a crescent of black stone chairs that curved like a predator's jaw around the center of the room. They were each of the most feared people in each clan. Why was I here?

I was thrown into that center.

The floor was carved with the Silverclaw sigil—an open wolf's mouth and a rising moon. Blood had stained the cracks between the stone. My knees hit hard. I stayed there, head bowed.

"This is the one?" a female elder sneered.

"The rogue," another spat. "No wolf. No name."

"She bears the Alpha’s mark."

“How could he do that when he knows he's betrothed. And not just to anybody but a mere weaklen.”

Whispers surged like a tide around me. I felt them all like knives to the back. I clenched my jaw and said nothing.

The doors opened again.

Silence fell.

I didn’t have to look to know it was him.

His presence filled the chamber like a thundercloud—oppressive, electric, terrifying. Kael. My supposed mate.

He walked with measured steps, like he wasn't just dying in the woods, his heavy boots echoing off the walls. He didn’t even take a look at me as he took his place at the front of the room.

“Alpha Kael,” the head elder, Elder Toran, spoke first. “You arrive late. We’ve already wasted time on this... disgrace.”

Kael folded his arms. “I didn’t ask for a council meeting.”

“She was found on your territory. Marked by you.”

“I was injured. Disoriented.” His voice was flat. Cold.

How could he be so nonchalant in a situation like this.

“Yet your instincts were clear enough to claim her,” Elder Mira snapped. “Are you saying you made a mistake?”

Kael didn’t answer.

Toran slammed his cane against the floor. “This is a violation of centuries-old laws. She is not of the blood. She has no wolf. She is rogue. We cannot accept her as Luna."

Luna.

The word hit like ice. I wasn’t even thinking that far. I just wanted to live and go back to marta. She's dying and I was only try to save her, not put myself in a worse position. She didn't know I left the house. How would she cope on her own? What is she dies,how to I forgive myself?

“I never said I’d accept her,” Kael said darkly. “I never said she meant anything.”

His words shocked me out of my thinking. The words cut. I didn’t flinch or look at him. That would only hurt more.

“Then why protect her?” Mira’s voice was sharp. “Why bring her here instead of leaving her for the punishment she deserves?”

Why did u deserve a punishment for something I had no control over.

“She bears my mark,” Kael said slowly, “and until I decide what to do with her, no one touches her.”

Gasps echoed around the chamber. Eyes staring at each other.

Toran stood. His age showed in his bones, but his power radiated off him like fire. “You overstep, Kael. The council has tolerated your rule because you brought strength to the Silverclaw. But strength does not excuse foolishness. This girl threatens our unity. Our traditions.”

Then came the final blow.

“You are betrothed, Kael. Have you forgotten your duty to Kira of the Moonfangs?”

That name. Kira.

Even I’d heard it in passing. Daughter of the Moonfang Alpha. Beautiful. Vicious. Born to rule beside him. I was nothing next to her.

Kael’s jaw clenched. His eyes fierce like an abomination was mentioned, didn't he like her? “My bond with her is political.”

“And this mark you placed on a rogue?” Mira snapped. “Was that political too?”

He didn’t answer.

A bitter laugh rose in my throat but I swallowed it. This wasn’t about me. I was just the excuse they needed to start a war.

Toran turned to me. “Speak, girl. What spell did you cast on our Alpha?”

I looked up. “I did nothing. I didn’t even know who he was until—”

“She lies.” Mira stood now too. “No wolf can be marked by accident. Even rogues. You must have done something to trigger the bond. Tainted blood. Forbidden magic.” Forbidden magic? These people sure do have high expectations of me.

“I have no magic,” I whispered. “No wolf. No power.”

“Then why do you still live?” Toran asked.

I looked up at him. Unfortunately for him, I had no answer. I myself didn't even know why I was living or what I was living for.

Kael moved. Slowly. Purposefully. He crossed the chamber and stood behind me.

“She did nothing,” he said again. “And I have no intention of claiming her.”

His voice dropped lower, a growl beneath the words. “But if any of you so much as touch her—if one drop of her blood is spilled without my word—I will personally rip out your throats.”

My breath caught.

Gasps and murmurs rippled again. But this time, they were softer tinged with fear.

Toran’s voice was calm. Too calm. “Then you’ve chosen your war, Alpha.”

Kael’s eyes met his. Golden. Unblinking.

“I choose no war. But I end those who bring it to me.”

With that, he turned and walked out of the chamber. Without looking back.

The guards hesitated. Mira barked an order to seize me again. But no one moved.

Because they all knew what Kael was.

And now, somehow, so did I.