All Chapters of My Mate's Father Claimed Me: Chapter 171

 POV: Kael The trial of a brother is a funeral without a body. We gathered in the high circle where the stone was still scarred from the violet light of Kenny’s defense.  The air was crisp, the scent of pine and damp earth settling over the pack like a heavy shroud.  Jake stood in the center, not in chains; I wouldn't insult our history with iron but bound by the weight of a thousand shared memories he had tried to incinerate. His shoulder was bandaged, his face hollowed out by a night of looking into the abyss and finding only his own reflection. Ryker stood to the right of the judgment seat, his hands gripped tight behind his back.  I could see the tremor in his fingers. He and Jake had been the twin pillars of my command.  To see one broken was to see the architecture of our world leaning toward c