Chapter 7: Frozen King

Kael’s POV

"Hello, Alpha Draven." Her voice carries effortlessly through the stunned hall. "Did you miss me?"

The question detonates in my chest.

Five years. Five years of carefully buried guilt, of convincing myself the sacrifice was necessary, that I made the right choice for my pack. Five years of pushing down the bond's constant ache until it became background noise.

Now it's a wildfire.

The corrupted connection between us explodes to life with the force of a lightning strike. Ice and electricity slam through my ribcage. My wolf, silent and sullen for years, goes absolutely feral.

MATE. MATE. ALIVE.

"Steady," Mira murmurs beside me, her hand on my arm the only thing keeping me grounded.

But I'm not steady. I'm fracturing.

The bond burns wrong. Twisted. Every pulse sends jagged shards of emotion through me, rage, longing, pain so deep it has no bottom. I can't tell what's mine and what's bleeding through from her.

Yes. That's mine. The suffocating weight I've carried since that night, growing heavier with each passing year until I forgot what it felt like to breathe without it.

She's alive.

The woman standing in the center of my hall, commanding the attention of every wolf present, bears almost no resemblance to the terrified omega who collapsed at the Moon Ascension ceremony. That girl was invisible, silent, desperate to disappear.

This woman is power incarnate.

Silver hair falls past her shoulders, catching candlelight like captured moonlight. Glowing marks trace across her skin, visible at her wrists and throat, hinting at more beneath the black silk. Her eyes are darker than I remember. Harder.

The Moonshadow.

I've heard the whispers. Every alpha has. Stories filtering in from the forbidden territories about an omega who survived Shadowpine, who built something in the shadows, who protects the vulnerable with forbidden magic.

I dismissed most of it as exaggeration.

Looking at her now, I realize I didn't dismiss it enough.

"You're staring," Mira says quietly.

I know. I can't stop.

My wolf is clawing at my control, desperate to reach her. To touch her. To fix what I destroyed. But I force him down because I have no right. I gave up that right five years ago when I stood on a platform and declared her unworthy.

The memory burns. Her face when I said it. The hope dying in her eyes. The bond twisting as she fell.

We killed her, my wolf snarls. We stood there and killed her.

"She's alive," I whisper back.

No thanks to us.

Around the hall, reactions vary. The other ruling alphas watch with calculation. Smaller pack representatives look at Nyra with something close to worship. And Dorian Cross studies her with an expression I don't like, fascination mixed with ambition.

But Nyra only looks at me.

The silence stretches. She's waiting. Expecting me to respond to her question with some practiced political answer, some alpha posturing.

I can't.

The corrupted bond pulses between us, dragging the truth to the surface. She can feel what I feel. The guilt. The regret. The hollow ache that's lived in my chest since the moment she disappeared into Shadowpine.

Does she know I searched? That I sent wolves into the forest edge, desperate for any sign she'd survived? That when they found nothing, I buried myself in duty because it was the only way to function?

Her smile tells me she doesn't care.

"Nothing to say, Alpha?" She tilts her head slightly. "That's unusual for you. Five years ago you had plenty to say. In front of hundreds."

The barb lands exactly where she intended.

"Nyra…"

"Don't." The word cracks like a whip. "You don't get to use that name. Not anymore."

My hands tighten on the table edge. The wood groans.

"What should I call you, then?"

"Nothing." Her voice is ice. "We have nothing to discuss privately. Anything you need to say to me can be said here, in front of everyone. Just like you did at the ceremony."

She's right. I rejected her publicly. Humiliated her in front of the entire pack. Whatever happens between us now should be equally public.

Fair.

Devastating.

But fair.

Dorian rises smoothly from his seat. "Perhaps we should…"

"Sit down, Cross," Nyra says without looking at him. "The adults are talking."

A few wolves gasp. No one speaks to a Council alpha that way.

Dorian's smile doesn't falter, but his eyes sharpen. He sits, still watching her with that calculating interest.

Dangerous. He's always been dangerous, but something about the way he looks at Nyra sets my teeth on edge.

"Five years," Nyra continues, her attention back on me. "Five years I've built something in the shadows while you ruled from your comfortable seat. Tell me, Alpha Draven, did you ever wonder what happened to me? Or was I simply another problem solved?"

"I wondered." My voice comes out rougher than intended. "Every day."

"Liar."

The accusation stings because part of me knows she's right. Yes, I wondered. Yes, I carried guilt. But I also buried it. Pushed it down. Convinced myself the sacrifice was necessary.

Leadership requires sacrifice. That's what my father taught me. What the Council reinforced.

I sacrificed her.

And she became this.

"I'm not lying," I say quietly. "I thought about you every single day. The bond…"

"The bond you corrupted." She steps closer. Wolves move aside, giving her a clear path. "The bond you twisted into something wrong because you couldn't even reject me properly. Tell me, has it been hurting you? That constant ache in your chest? The wrongness you can't fix?"

Yes.

"Good," she says, reading the answer in my silence. "I hope it hurt. I hope every day for five years you felt a fraction of what you put me through."

The bond flares viciously. I can feel her rage now, unfiltered. Five years of it, burning beneath carefully maintained control.

My wolf whimpers. He wants to submit, to apologize, to grovel if that's what it takes.

But I know it won't help.

"What do you want?" I ask.

Her smile is cold and beautiful and terrible. "Choice. The thing you took from me."

"I can't undo…"

"I don't want you to undo it." She's close enough now that I can see the silver marks pulse with her heartbeat. "I want you to live with it. I want every alpha in this room to see exactly what happens when they treat omegas as disposable."

A warning. A promise. A declaration of war.

"Kael." Mira's voice cuts through my spiraling thoughts. She's moved closer, positioning herself slightly between Nyra and me. Her hand rests on the hilt of her blade. "We need to talk. Now."

I tear my gaze away from Nyra for the first time since she entered.

Mira's expression is grim. Professional. The face she wears when she's reading a battlefield and calculating odds.

"Not now," I say.

"Yes, now." Her voice drops to barely a whisper, urgent and serious. "Kael. Look at her. Really look."

I am looking. I haven't stopped.

"She's not here for closure," Mira continues, quiet enough that only I can hear. "She's not here to forgive or forget or find peace. She's here for war."