جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 120

 LeahTwo words.But they weren't just words.The command hit the room like a physical force. I felt it pass through me, a wave of pressure that rolled outward from where Darien stood and slammed into every wolf in the chamber. It bypassed the mind entirely. Went straight to the place where instinct lived, where the wolf resided beneath the skin, and pressed down with an authority that was older than language.Donnelly's knees buckled.He fought it. I could see the struggle in every muscle of his body, the way his arms locked, the way his jaw clenched so hard I heard his teeth grind. His wolf was screaming at him to submit, and his pride was screaming at him to resist. The war between the two pla

LeahThe private audiences started within the hour.Cain had arranged the sessions in one of the smaller council rooms off the main corridor, a stone chamber with a heavy oak table, tall windows that let the afternoon light pour in, and enough chairs for the parties involved and no one else. It was intimate by design. These weren't public disputes meant to be aired in front of every alpha in attendance. These were personal grievances, the kind that people carried close to the heart and only brought forward when they trusted the person listening enough to be honest.I sat beside Darien at the head of the table. Cain stood near the door, arms crossed, expression neutral. Keanu had been politely excluded from the proceedings, which he accepted with the grudging understanding of someone who knew this was royal business.The first four audiences were straightforward. A land dispute between neighboring packs that had escalated after a wildfire shifted the tree line. A trade disagreement ove

  Leah“She betrayed me!” Trenton roared, surging to his feet. “She betrayed the pack! She should be punished for—”My shadows reacted before I made a conscious decision.They didn't erupt. Didn't explode outward the way they had when I'd fought Rayanna. They rose from my skin in slow, deliberate tendrils, curling upward from my shoulders like dark smoke, silent and controlled. The temperature in the room dropped several degrees. The candlelight on the table flickered and dimmed.Trenton's words died in his throat. His eyes went wide, the anger draining from his face as the shadows coiled in the air around me. Fear replaced it. The primal, instinctive fear of a wolf recognizing something that sat above h

LeahThe courtyard finally felt quiet again.For the first time in over a week, there wasn't a constant hum of voices layered over each other, no alphas circling each other like dogs in a yard that hadn't decided who was top yet. The summit was supposed to be a few days. It had stretched into eight. The alphas who'd shown up to test Darien had liked what they'd seen enough to stay, and the ones who'd shown up suspicious had stayed because they didn't want to be the first to leave and look weak in front of the others.So we'd hosted them while they presented their issues to their king.And now they were finally gone.I stood on the upper balcony with Keanu, watching the last of the cars roll out through the front gate.“Do you think any of them will actually do what they said?” Keanu leaned against the railing beside me, his arms crossed.“Some will. Some won't.” I rolled my shoulders and tried to ignore the way the gesture sent a dull ache down my spine. “Vasquez will. Mercer probably

 LeahOf course I knew it.I stopped at the door of our bedroom. My hand hovered over the handle. Inside, I could hear Keanu moving around, the soft clink of him doing something at the table, probably setting up his bedtime snacks because making it through the night without eating was too hard.He was already in there. Refusing to leave me alone tonight. He'd told me earlier. Darien's orders, he'd said, but I knew it was his own.I should have gone in.I stood there for a long second, my fingers on the handle, the smell curling at the edges of my awareness, and then I let go and turned the other way.The smell was coming from outside.