COUNCIL EYES

CHAPTER 9

Elder Wren's stare could have frozen a lake.

She looked at me as though something unwanted had been tracked into Blackthorn territory on the bottom of a boot.

"The Alpha's business is his own," she said, not directly to me, but loudly enough that I was clearly meant to hear. "But I question the wisdom of allowing an outsider this close to Blackthorn's future."

Roman didn't flinch beside me.

"Mira is part of a formal arrangement, Wren. Not a passing guest."

"An arrangement made without council review."

"An arrangement that doesn't require it."

The council chamber was full.

A dozen elders sat around the long table, their expressions ranging from openly skeptical to carefully unreadable. I sat near Roman, but somehow it felt as though I'd been placed at the end of a trial rather than invited into a meeting.

Wren folded her hands.

"Why her?"

Roman's expression remained unreadable.

"There were other candidates. Registered candidates. Vetted candidates. Why choose an outsider from a minor Silverpine branch?"

"Compatibility."

Roman said the word simply.

Wren's mouth tightened.

"That word again."

Her gaze moved between us.

"Compatibility according to whom?"

"According to results I trust."

"Results you haven't shared with this council."

"Because the council isn't entitled to every detail of a private medical decision."

A few elders exchanged looks.

I glanced at Roman.

His voice hadn't risen, but his jaw was tight.

I'd seen that expression before.

In the study.

During the tests.

Whenever someone came too close to whatever he wasn't telling me.

Was he defending me?

Or simply defending a decision he refused to let anyone challenge?

Wren leaned back.

"And what guarantees do we have that Miss Vale won't attempt to influence the heir's upbringing?"

Roman's eyes hardened.

"She has no intention of doing that."

"Doesn't she?"

Wren finally turned her attention fully toward me.

"Do you, Miss Vale?"

I opened my mouth.

"The terms are clear," Roman said before I could answer. "Once the child is born, the arrangement concludes."

The words shouldn't have bothered me.

They were the terms we'd agreed to.

Still, hearing him say them so plainly in front of everyone made something inside me tighten.

I lowered my eyes for half a second.

Wren noticed.

"And if the Alpha becomes... attached?"

The room went completely still.

Roman didn't move.

"That isn't a council concern."

"It becomes a council concern if it complicates succession."

"It won't."

"You sound very certain."

"I am the Alpha."

His voice was quiet.

Absolute.

"I don't require your certainty to have my own."

Wren's expression hardened, but she didn't pursue that particular line.

Instead, she turned back to me.

"Do you understand what you've agreed to, Miss Vale?"

I looked at her.

"The political weight of what you're carrying?"

This time, I didn't let Roman answer for me.

"I understand that I'm carrying an heir for a territory I didn't grow up in."

My voice was steadier than I felt.

"I understand that I'm surrounded by people who decided what kind of person I am before I've even finished speaking."

A faint murmur traveled around the table.

I kept my eyes on Wren.

"And I understand the terms of the agreement."

I paused.

"But I'm beginning to wonder whether the council understands them."

Silence.

Wren's eyes narrowed.

Not anger exactly.

Recalculation.

Roman glanced at me.

Only for a moment.

I couldn't read his expression.

Then a quieter voice spoke from the far end of the table.

"Why her specifically?"

Elder Corvin.

He had barely spoken since I'd entered the room.

Yet I'd felt his attention on me several times.

Roman's gaze shifted toward him.

"I've already answered that."

"You've answered what."

Corvin's tone remained calm.

"Not why."

"Compatibility is the reason."

"Compatibility is a result."

Corvin's eyes settled on me.

"It has a cause."

Roman's expression tightened.

"The cause is Sable's assessment."

"Based on what markers?"

The question was harmless on its surface.

Roman's silence wasn't.

Only a second.

Maybe less.

But it was enough.

Corvin noticed.

"So did Wren."

Corvin leaned back slightly.

"What do you know about her maternal lineage?"

The question landed like a stone dropped into still water.

My breath caught.

Roman's expression barely changed.

But I saw it.

A flicker.

Gone almost immediately.

"That's not relevant to this meeting," he said.

Too quickly.

Corvin didn't blink.

"Isn't it?"

"Corvin."

The warning in Roman's voice was unmistakable.

Corvin studied him for another moment.

Then he inclined his head.

"I withdraw the question."

His attention returned to me.

There was something unsettling in his eyes now.

Not hostility.

Recognition.

As though he had expected an answer to a question I didn't even know I was supposed to understand.

The meeting moved on.

Reports.

Supplies.

Territory logistics.

I heard almost none of it.

One question kept repeating inside my head.

What do you know about my maternal lineage?

The meeting ended without resolution.

I was beginning to suspect that was how everything in this house ended.

I left the chamber first.

I needed air.

Distance.

Anything that didn't feel like a room full of people silently measuring me.

"Miss Vale."

I stopped.

Corvin stood several paces behind me.

I turned.

"What was that back there?"

He said nothing.

"Why does my mother's family matter?"

His expression remained calm.

Too calm.

"Your mother's family the Vale line is older than most people realize."

My stomach tightened.

"Older how?"

He didn't answer.

"Older than what?"

Still nothing.

"Corvin."

He studied me for a long moment.

Then he said quietly, "Ask your mother sometime what she knows about where the Vale name really comes from."

I stared at him.

"What does that mean?"

But he'd already turned away.

"Corvin."

He continued down the corridor.

I didn't follow.

I stood there alone, listening to his footsteps disappear.

The corridor suddenly felt colder.

My mother's family.

My maternal lineage.

The Vale name.

I'd spent my entire life thinking of my family as ordinary.

A minor branch.

A family that had never mattered to anyone beyond Silverpine.

But Roman had known something.

Corvin knew something.

And now I couldn't shake the feeling that whatever secret they were protecting hadn't begun in Blackthorn.

It had followed me here.

From a family history I'd never once thought to question.