The Announcement

CHAPTER 001

THE ANNOUNCEMENT

Cecilia strode through the palace gates, her muscles burning from the brutal session. Sweat clung to her skin beneath her training leathers, and her knuckles bore fresh scrapes from the hand-to-hand drills she had subjected herself and her warriors to. 

Behind her, Darcy struggled to keep pace, her beta's breathing laboured.

"Alpha, perhaps you should rest before—"

"I don't need rest, Darcy." Cecilia's voice cut through the evening air like a blade. "I need my pack to be ready for anything. Weakness is not something we can afford."

Darcy fell silent, though Cecilia could feel her disapproval radiating in waves. “Good. Let her disapprove.” 

Cecilia hadn't built the Greensville Pack's fearsome reputation by cuddling anyone, least of all herself.

If a female Alpha ever shows weakness—even once—the crown is ripped away and handed to the nearest male relative or docile female cousin

As they approached the main corridor leading to her chambers, an unusual stillness settled over the palace. 

"Where is everyone?" Darcy voiced the question that had already formed in Cecilia's mind.

Before Cecilia could answer, a young servant girl rounded the corner, nearly colliding with them. The girl's eyes widened in terror as she stumbled backwards, her tray clattering to the floor.

"Alpha Queen! I—I didn't expect—"

"Where are the council members?" Cecilia barked, ignoring her clumsy act. 

The girl's face paled. "They're... they're in the throne room, Alpha Queen with your father. They've been there for over an hour."

The words hit Cecilia like a physical blow. A council meeting. Her father was holding a council meeting, and he hadn't informed and invited her. 

She was the Alpha Queen of the Greensville Pack, the strongest pack in the northern territories, and she was being excluded from her own council.

Heat flooded through her veins, not from the training but from pure, unfiltered rage.

"That bastard," she hissed.

"Cecilia, wait—" Darcy's hand reached for her arm, but Cecilia jerked away.

"Don't touch me."

"You need to think about this. If your father didn't invite you to the meeting, it might be about you. Going in there angry will only—"

"Will only what, Darcy?" Cecilia spun to face her beta, and even Darcy, who had known her since childhood, took a step back. "Will only make me look like what I am? The Alpha Queen who won't tolerate being undermined in her own territory?"

"It could be a misunderstanding—"

"There is no misunderstanding!" Cecilia's voice echoed off the stone walls. "He deliberately kept this from me. He is holding a council meeting in my pack and territory. How dare he?"

She had spent twenty-two years proving a woman could rule wolves without flinching. One crack in the mask and every male in this room would tear the crown off her head and hand it to the first man who smiled politely.

Darcy's expression softened with concern. "Please, Cecilia, calm yourself before you go in there. Your father is still the former Alpha. The elders respect him. If you storm in like this—"

"Then they'll remember exactly who rules this pack now."

Without waiting for a response, Cecilia turned on her heel and stalked towards the throne room. Her heart pounded against her ribcage, each beat feeding the fury that threatened to consume her. 

“How could he do this? How could Bonn, her own father, treat her with such blatant disrespect?”

She had fought for this position. She had trained until her hands bled and her body screamed for mercy, made decisions that kept her awake at night, eliminated threats without hesitation and earned her reputation as the most ruthless Alpha in generations. 

And now her own father dared to hold meetings behind her back like she was some incompetent child?

The ornate doors to the throne room loomed before her. Two guards stood at attention, their eyes widening as they took in her appearance, still in training gear, face flushed with exertion and anger, red hair wild around her shoulders.

"Alpha Queen," one of them began nervously, "the council is in session—"

Cecilia shoved past them and kicked the doors open with enough force to make them slam against the walls.

The conversation inside died instantly.

The torchlight in the room caught the wildfire of her hair, still braided for battle, the ends singed black from the training fires she refused to let anyone else light.

The throne room, with its high vaulted ceilings and stone pillars, suddenly felt too small to contain her rage. 

Her father sat in the Alpha's chair—her chair—surrounded by the pack's six elders. They all turned to stare at her, their expressions ranging from shock to disapproval.

Cecilia didn't care.

"What," she said, her voice deadly quiet, "is the meaning of a council meeting that I was not informed about?"

The silence that followed was suffocating. She watched as several of the elders exchanged uncomfortable glances. Her father's expression remained infuriatingly neutral, as if her presence was merely an inconvenience.

Elder Eric, a grey-haired man with a perpetual sneer, was the first to speak. "Have you lost your manners, girl? Can you not greet the council before barging in and asking stupid questions?"

The room seemed to hold its breath. Nobody—not even the elders—dsres speak to Cecilia in that manner.

Cecilia's eyes locked onto Eric with the intensity of a predator sighting prey. She grinned widely like a maniac before inching closer towards the Elder.

"Elder Eric, you are dismissed from this council meeting until further notice for speaking to your Alpha Queen in that manner."

Eric's face flushed red. "You cannot—"

"I said dismissed." Each word was enunciated with perfect clarity. "Leave. Now."

"Bonn, surely you won't allow—"

"Cecilia." Her father's voice cut through the tension like a knife. He stood slowly, his aged frame still carrying the bearing of the powerful Alpha he once was. "Eric, please forgive my daughter's behaviour. You are not dismissed."

The words hit Cecilia like a slap. How dare her father contradict her words in front of her subject? 

And then Cecilia’s lips curled into a slow devilish smile.

She stepped close enough that Elder Eric smelled the blood on her knuckles.  

‘Careful, old man,’ she whispered, soft enough only he heard. ‘Next time you call me girl, I’ll have your tongue nailed to the gate by sunrise.’  

  

Then she turned away as if he were already dead.

"Father," she said, the title tasting like ash in her mouth, "I asked you a question. Why is there a council meeting that I was not invited to? Why was I not informed?"

Bonn's eyes—the same amber colour as her own—met hers without flinching. There was something in his gaze she couldn't quite read. Resignation? Determination? Whatever it was, it made her stomach twist with unease.

"This meeting concerns you," he said quietly. "That is why you were not invited."

"Concerns me?" Cecilia's laugh was bitter. "Everything that happens in this pack concerns me. I am the Alpha Queen."

"And you are also a twenty-two-year-old woman without a mate."

"My personal life is none of the council's concern."

"It is when your nonchalant attitude towards finding a mate becomes the topic at every villager's mouth." Bonn's voice remained calm, but there was steel beneath it. "It is when they begin to question your ability to lead and question whether you are fit to rule alone."

"I have led this pack to strength," Cecilia snarled. "Our borders are secure, the warriors are the finest in the territories and our wealth has tripled under my leadership. What do I need a mate for?"

"For stability," Elder Margaret spoke up, her voice gentle but firm. "You need a mate for an heir."

"I decide when and if I will take a mate. Not you or any of you." Cecilia's gaze swept across the council, daring any of them to contradict her.

Bonn sighed, and the sound carried a weariness that made him seem suddenly older. "I thought you would say that. Which is why I have made a decision and was merely discussing the details with the council."

Every instinct Cecilia possessed screamed at her to run. To leave this room, to avoid whatever blow was coming. But she stood her ground, her chin lifted in defiance even as her heart began to race.

"What decision?"

"I have accepted an arranged marriage proposal on your behalf."

The world tilted. For a moment, Cecilia couldn't breathe, think, or even process the words she had just heard. Surely, she had misunderstood.

Surely, her father, the man who had raised her to be strong, to be ruthless, to never bow to anyone had not just said what she thought he said.

"What?" The word came out as barely a whisper.

"The Redwood Pack approached us three months ago," Bonn continued, his tone businesslike, as if he were discussing trade agreements rather than her entire future. "They are struggling. They need the protection and resources that an alliance with Greensville would provide. In exchange, they offer their Alpha's son as your mate. The marriage is sealed and preparations have already begun."

"No." Cecilia shook her head, taking a step backwards. "No. You didn't. You wouldn't."

"It is done, Cecilia."

"You had no right!" Her voice rose to a shout that echoed off the stone walls. "No right to sell me off like some piece of property! I am the Alpha Queen!"

"And I am still your father and the former Alpha of this pack," Bonn said, his voice hardening. "I have every right to ensure the pack's future. Your stubbornness was leaving me no choice."

Cecilia looked around the room, searching for support, for someone who would stand with her against this madness. 

But the elders avoided her gaze, their expressions ranging from sympathetic to approving. They had known. All of them had known, and not one had thought to warn her.

Betrayal tasted like copper on her tongue.

"I reject this," she said, forcing her voice to steady. "I reject this marriage and alliance. You cannot force me to—"

"If you refuse," Bonn interrupted, his voice cold now, devoid of any fatherly warmth, "I will strip you of your inheritance. I will call an emergency council and have you removed as Alpha Queen."

The threat hung in the air like a death sentence.

"You wouldn't dare."

"I would. And I will name Lila as the new Alpha in your place."

Lila, cousin sister. The one who would accept this arranged marriage without question.

"Lila is weak," Cecilia spat. "She couldn't lead this pack for a day before—"

"Lila is sensible. She understands duty and sacrifice." Bonn's eyes bore into hers. "Things you seem to have forgotten in your quest for absolute power."

"I have sacrificed everything for this pack!" Cecilia's control finally snapped. "I have given up sleep, comfort, peace. I have made decisions that haunt me. I have killed to protect our people. And you dare question my commitment?"

"I question your judgement," Bonn said quietly. "And clearly, I am not alone."

The words were a dagger to the heart. Cecilia looked at the council again, seeing the truth in their faces. 

They agreed with him. All of them. She was alone in this room, alone in her own pack.

"You cannot do this to me." Her voice broke on the last word, and she hated herself for the weakness.

"It is already done." Bonn's expression softened slightly, but his resolve remained still.

"And if I refuse? If I walk away from all of this?"

"Then you walk away with nothing. No title, no pack, no family." Bonn held her gaze. "Is that what you want, Cecilia? To lose everything because of your pride?"

For one heartbeat the throne room blurred. She saw herself at seven years old, clinging to his leg after her mother died, begging him never to leave her alone. Then the memory burned away.  

She straightened, ice sliding over the crack in her soul. “Enjoy your last night on my chair, Father.’”

Bonn spoke again,

“By sunrise tomorrow

you will either stand at that altar in chains of gold… or watch Lila sit on your throne wearing your crown while every wolf in the north laughs at the female Alpha who thought she could rule alone.”