All Chapters of Bound to the Alpha She Was Raised to Hate : Chapter 91 - Chapter 100

Odessa's POVTwenty-four hours. Garrick said it like the number itself might change if he said it slow enough, but the weight of it just kept settling heavier the longer we all stood there staring at each other."What in the name of the moon goddess does he think a tribunal even proves at this point," Micah said, breaking the silence first, his voice tight with disbelief. "He's already decided the verdict. He wrote the charges himself.""That's exactly the point," Ronan said, grim. "It's not about proving anything. It's about giving the Vale council a legal fig leaf to hide behind when he takes her by force. A tribunal, even a rigged one, lets him say afterward that proper process was followed.""So we've got twenty-four hours," I said, my voice barely holding steady, "to do what, exactly? Prove decades of systemic murder and disappearance, get someone inside the council to risk everything going on record, and somehow stop a tribunal we already know is fixed?""When you say it like th

Odessa's POVCorvin gestured, and an aide stepped forward with a leather folder, opening it with the kind of ceremonial care usually reserved for something far more legitimate than what I already knew it contained."Exhibit one," Corvin said, holding up a sheet of parchment for the council to see. "A confession, signed and witnessed, from the enforcer directly involved in coordinating the sabotage attacks against Ironhollow. He states, in his own words, that Miss Ravencourt approached him privately, offering compensation in exchange for staging the well poisoning and the archive fire, in order to secure sympathy and continued protection from the pack sheltering her.""That's a lie," I said, my voice cutting through the chamber before I could stop myself."Miss Ravencourt," Corvin said, his tone carrying gentle reproach, the kind that made me sound unstable simply for objecting. "You'll have your opportunity to respond. For now, please allow the ev

Odessa's POVThe chamber had gone quiet after Corvin's dismissal, that particular kind of silence that comes right before a crowd decides which way to lean, and I felt the weight of it pressing down harder with every passing second."He's got them," I whispered to Ronan, panic rising fast in my chest. "He's turning this back on us again, and it's working.""Not yet," Ronan said, his voice carrying less certainty than I needed to hear right then.A murmur rippled through the crowd near the back of the chamber, low at first, then building, and I turned, following the sound, my heart lurching when I saw movement near one of the side entrances I hadn't noticed anyone using before.Marsh.He must have slipped in sometime during the chaos of Ronan's presentation, quiet enough that I missed him entirely while focused on Corvin and the mounting evidence between them. He stood now near the edge of the seated council, still in his traveling cloak, dust from the road still visible on his boots.

Odessa's POV"Is that so," Ronan said, his voice going dangerously flat, stepping fully in front of me before the enforcers could take another step closer. "The council just adjourned this exact matter pending investigation. You've got no authority to act on charges that are still under review.""The Magistrate's authority stands independent of council review," the lead enforcer said, even though he sounded slightly uncertain saying it, like he'd been handed a script he wasn't entirely comfortable reciting. "Existing charges remain in effect until formally dismissed.""That's not how any of this works," Garrick snapped, moving to stand beside his son, Briar and Micah closing ranks around us fast despite the obvious danger of what they were about to walk into."Take her," Corvin said again, his voice still carrying that same maddening calm from further down the corridor, watching the entire confrontation unfold like it barely concerned him at

Ronan's POVThe ride back to Ironhollow felt longer than any distance I ever covered, every mile widening the gap between me and wherever they'd taken her, and I spent the entire journey fighting the urge to turn my horse around and ride straight back into Vale territory alone.Micah rode beside me, one arm cradled against his chest where the enforcer's weapon had caught him, his jaw tight with pain he refused to acknowledge out loud. Briar favored her bad ankle even worse now than before, though she refused any help mounting up, same stubborn pride she'd shown through this entire ordeal.My father rode ahead of us, silent since we crossed back over the border, and I could feel the weight of whatever he was already planning to say building with every passing minute of that silence.We reached the pack house just past midnight, and he called us straight into the study, no time wasted on rest or recovery despite the visible exhaustion and injuries a