LOGINSera's POVI stared straight at Vael, the stone in my closed fist suddenly warm against my skin. He had just called me “the problem” and the word still hung in the air like smoke. I didn’t flinch. I didn’t look away. I just let my voice come out flat and even.“Yes,” I said. “I was always going to be. That’s what you couldn’t control.”The eldest council woman didn’t silence me. She didn’t call for order again. She just let the words sit there, heavy and quiet, while the chamber waited. No one moved. No one spoke. The silence stretched so long I could feel it pressing on my chest, but I didn’t break it. I just kept looking at Vael, waiting to see what he would do next.Vael’s shoulders dropped another inch. His voice was weak, but he tried one last time. “Sera… this isn’t what you think. I was protecting…”“Protecting?” I cut in, my tone sharp. “You call this protecting? You call burying the truth protecting? You call hurting people protecting? You call hiding the hybrid bloodline pro
Sera's POVI didn’t make it beautiful. I didn’t make it small. I told the truth the way Mara taught me to, straight through, without touching it up to make the room feel better. My voice stayed steady, no shaking, no softening, just the words coming out exactly as they had lived in me for years. The paper in my hands didn’t matter anymore. The words were out now, loud enough for every bench, every corner of the chamber to hear.“I grew up in a world that categorized me as a resource before I was old enough to understand what that was meant,” I said.The room stayed dead silent. No gasps. No shifting. Just the heavy quiet pressing down on us all.“It was Caden who kept me safe,” I continued. “He protected me from Vael’s hands when I was too small to fight back. He gave me a room in his house and a bed that didn’t shake. But he took my childhood. He took every night I could have spent being a kid and made it about watching my back. It cost me years of normal. It cost me laughter that wa
Riven's POVI was on my feet before the council member even finished saying the word “inadmissible.” The chair scraped loud behind me as I stood, every muscle tight from the moment he rose. My eyes locked on him, and the words came out flat. “I move to strike this testimony as procedurally inadmissible.”The room exploded.Gasps rippled through the benches. Whispers turned into shouts. Someone at the back slammed a fist on the wood. My father’s grip tightened on Sera’s elbow. Caden, who had come without being asked and was standing at the back of the chamber, lifted a hand like he was ready to step forward himself. The guards at Vael’s end straightened up, hands hovering near their belts.The eldest council woman stood too, her voice cutting through the noise like a whip. “Order! Order in the chamber! You will sit down and be silent until I say otherwise!”She looked like someone who had been calling rooms to order for forty years and was deeply unimpressed by this one. Her face was s
Sera's POVThe letter from Elder Thorne still burned in my pocket like a live coal. I folded it once more, the message from the unknown council member screaming in my head: “There are people on this council who do not want her to finish speaking. Be ready.” I shoved it deeper, straightened my jacket, and stepped out of my room. Riven was waiting in the hallway, his hand already reaching for mine. Cael stood beside him, jaw set like he was ready for anything.“We’ve got this,” Riven said quietly, his voice low so only I could hear. “Whatever comes next, we face it together.”I nodded, but my throat felt tight. “I know. Let’s just get it over with.”The council chamber felt different from the first time we walked in here. Bigger. Fuller. Word had spread fast, whispers I caught in the hallways, the way the pack had packed every bench, the humans in the back row shifting nervously. The air smelled like old stone and nervous energy. My father walked at my other side, his arm brushing mine
Sera's POVThe letter from Elder Thorne sat on my desk like a live wire. I picked it up again, fingers tightening around the paper. “You are requested to address the council and pack at the sentencing hearing for Elder Vael Kane. The eldest council woman requests your presence as a final statement of closure.”Three evenings. That’s all I had to prepare. No rush, no pressure, just the quiet grind of writing what I needed to say until the words felt solid enough to stand in front of the whole pack and say them out loud. I had already run through every detail in my head, the attacks, the money, the nights I woke up shaking, the way Vael had looked at me like I was nothing. But turning those memories into sentences that everyone would hear, record, and carry back was the part that kept me awake.I went to Riven’s desk in the evening, the stone in my pocket cool against my leg. He was at the table when I walked in, papers spread out like he’d been working on something for the pack. I didn
Sera's POVThe paper in my hands felt heavier than the stone tucked in my pocket. I kept staring at Elder Thorne’s note, the words blurring under the hallway light. “You are requested to address the council and pack at the sentencing hearing for Elder Vael Kane. The eldest council woman requests your presence as a final statement of closure.”I had read it three times already. Two days. That’s all the time they were giving me. No deadline, no pressure, just the quiet weight of knowing I would stand in front of every single person who mattered and say the things I had buried for years. The attacks. The money. The nights I woke up screaming. The way Vael had looked at me like I was nothing. But putting those words into sentences that everyone would hear, record, and carry back to the humans… that was the part that made my stomach twist.I walked the corridor to Mara’s room, my boots echoing softly on the stone floor. The stone tapped against my leg with every step, cold and real. When I
Sera's PovI didn't know about the message for a full day.I found that out later, the way you find out most things in a pack, sideways, after the fact, pieced together from things people don't quite say. Riven had it on his desk for a day before he called me in. I didn't know that when I walked in
Sera's PovMy second week at the household desk started the way the first one ended, with Mara handing me a stack of ledgers and saying, "These haven't been touched since spring," in the tone of someone who'd been waiting a long time to say it to someone other than herself.I worked through them at
Sera's Pov"Sera."I stopped halfway across the yard. Della. She had followed me out of the hall, her shawl pulled tight around her shoulders, her breath making small clouds in the cold air. She looked at the bag on my shoulder and then at my face and I watched her put it together in real time."Wh
Sera's Pov "She actually thought she deserved to be our Luna. How pathetic."I heard every word and kept my eyes forward, my hands loose at my sides, my breathing even. Three years in this pack taught me that much. You didn't react, you didn't give them the satisfaction. You kept your face smooth







