MasukIvy's POVThe meeting ended well.My heart did not.I sat in that chair and watched the hall empty and told myself to breathe normally because Liam was right beside me and I was not going to let him see whatever was happening in my chest right now. My wolf was pacing, slow circles, the way she did when she had picked up on something before I had finished processing it.Tulip was still in the room.She was pretty in a way that was hard to dismiss. Not sharp or deliberate the way Amy had been pretty, performing it, wearing it like armour. Tulip was pretty the way some women just are, naturally, effortlessly, the kind of pretty that does not need a mirror to confirm itself. She was thick through the hips, full
Liam's POV"On the grounds of bearing false witness against a sitting Alpha King, corruption of Council process, bribery of a Council member, and orchestrating the deliberate poisoning of an Alpha to suppress a mate bond." Luka's voice did not waver once. "You are hereby stripped of your Alpha title. Removed from leadership of your pack with immediate effect. Your title, your seat, your authority, all of it is revoked."Noah laughed. An actual laugh, short and sharp, the laugh of a man who thinks the punchline is coming and he already knows it."That will not hold." He looked around the room like he was waiting for someone to agree with him. "That will not hold, there is not a court in this territory that will enforce that, you cannot strip a born Alpha of his—"The men came through the side entrance with the iron cuffs.Noah's laugh stopped.He looked at
Liam's POVMy eyes found Tulip the second she walked through that door and the first thing I felt was not warmth. It was irritation. Deep, controlled, what the fuck are you doing here irritation that I had to keep completely off my face because fifty people were watching mine.My father had handled this. That was the arrangement. Tulip was supposed to stay low, stay quiet, stay out of anything with my name on it until the timing was right. She was not supposed to walk into my hall, in front of the High Council, in front of Ivy, and detonate everything at once.I looked at Ivy.She had gone pale and it's not dramatically, not the kind of pale that makes a room notice. The quiet kind, where the colour drains slowly from beneath the skin and the person sits very still and keeps their face exactly where they put it because they are not going to let anyone see what is happening underneath. I knew that face. I had spent months learning that face. I moved my hand under the table and found
Ivy's POVMy hands were flat on the table and I was pressing them down hard because if I did not, they were going to shake and I was not going to give this room that.Luka's words were still sitting in the air. Step down with immediate effect. They had landed somewhere in my chest like something cold dropped from a height and I was still feeling the weight of them when Liam laughed and everything in the hall changed.My wolf growled low inside me.Stay still, I told her. Not yet.She held but I felt her restless, coiled, unhappy about being made to wait.Liam rose from his chair. Not dramatically, not with a performance of it, just stood up slowly the way a storm gathers, and when he was fully upright the room felt like it had shrunk. He looked at Luka with that particular stillness that I had come to understand meant he was at his most dangerous and then he let it go."Where were you?" His voice filled every corner of that hall without effort. "Where was this Council when my wife was
Liam's POVI will be honest with myself for one second and admit that when Kel told me the Council had arrived unannounced I felt something close to tension settle in my chest. I do not do fear. But the particular tightness that comes when something you care about is about to be put in a room with people whose entire purpose is to dismantle it.Ivy was what I cared about. That was the thing I was still getting used to.I sat at the head of that table in my charcoal suit and watched her walk through those doors and I told myself to keep my face neutral and I managed it for approximately four seconds before she opened her mouth and I had to press my knuckles flat against the table to stop myself from reacting.I had forgotten who Ivy was.
Ivy's POVThe woman had authority the way some people have bone structure. You could not miss it and you could not manufacture it and she knew both of those things about herself.She was dressed like a Priestess, deep ceremonial robes the colour of midnight with gold stitching at the collar that caught the hall light every time she moved. She carried a staff, dark wood, a carved moon at the top, and she held it the way people hold things they have carried for so long it has become part of their body. Her face was all sharp angles and cold assessment and when her eyes landed on me they stayed there with the kind of patience that said she had been in rooms far more intimidating than this one and had walked out of all of them exactly the same way she walked in.My wolf went still inside me. Not afraid but watching.I wanted to ask who she was. The question was sitting right there on my tongue and I almost let it out before I caught myself because something about the way this woman was l
Noah's POVArguing with Liam was the most dangerous thing I could do right now and I knew that before he even sat down. He walked in and everything recalibrated around him without his permission being asked. It was the most infuriating thing about him and it had always been the most infuriating th
Liam's POVI reached Iron Veil Territory by evening.The guards at the border saw my car and looked at each other and made the collective decision to step aside without being told twice. I was not in the mood for a conversation at the gate and the energy coming off me made that very clear to anyon
Ivy's POVWhen I opened my eyes the room was dipped in the orange light of evening and Kel was sitting in the chair across from me like he had been there the whole time and was completely unbothered by that fact.I blinked. I sat up and looked at him."Why are you still here?""Good evening to you
Ivy's POVMy uncle was dead.There was nothing left to leverage. Noah was too smart to threaten a live man who could still be saved. He was dangling a corpse and dressing it up like a bargaining chip."Did you see his body?" Liam asked.I turned and looked at him. "No.""Then you don't know for cer







