High Lords Meeting #acotar Novels & Stories

"What are you doing here at this hour?" Kellan's face is dark, his usual gentle smile entirely absent. "Sommy, we have a problem." "What is it?" Tarian asks sharply, stepping forward. Kellan opens the leather ledger, holding it out under the flickering light of the porch torch. "The High Council just passed an emergency decree. Supreme Alpha Ronan Wolfhart has invoked an ancient blood-claim right over the High Healer accord." My blood runs instantly cold. "What does that mean?"

Someone's already decided what yours will cost you. Before I could ask what that meant, the door opened. I sat up fast and smoothed my face into something calm. Greta walked in with a folded blanket over her arm. Her eyes went to Rurik for a second, then back to me. "You should rest, Miss Montrose," she said, laying the blanket down. "Tomorrow will be a long day. The Council meets at dawn to go over what happened here." "The Council," I said. "Laron Larkspur leads it while the Alpha is unwell." Something in her voice changed when she said his name. Careful. Flat. Like she'd learned a long time ago how much the walls could hear. "He'll want to meet you himself."

Her table sits empty and the hole in the stone is still there from when she threw Silver Crest’s table plate at the wall. This meeting is pointless I have no reason to be here. I notice no Lunas in the room only Alphas. Primly stands in the center of the room waiting for everyone to take their seats. We sit at our table and the meeting begins. I notice how bored my brothers and I look Cyrus is leaning back in his chair Samson has his feet on the table and arms crossed and Duron has his arms crossed and head down with his eyes closed. It is a bunch of nonsense that speaks of disputes that happened in the past year changes of territory’s new land being acquired. New treaties and alliances that

she said. He went. , The wolf council delegation leader was a man named Haerath Cors, which I knew from Oryn's briefings as the name of the current High Pack Assembly's senior arbiter , a position that was elected and prestigious and that the Conclave had been actively cultivating relationships within for approximately forty years. He was older, grey-haired, with the bearing of someone who had been conducting formal proceedings for so long that the formality had become his natural atmosphere. He stood at the inner gate with his six delegates arranged behind him in the precise formation of the Rite's tradition and he looked at me when I came through the gate and his expression did the thing t

I asked flippantly, knowing just how low on provisions they were. Escha had taken most of them, after all. Richard's teeth clamped down, but before he could bite back, the elders on the council smacked down their toy mallets. Playing at order. "Now, now. This is not the time to quarrel. We have called this emergency meeting as there is a clan who has broken our summons for peace. Now, I'm not saying things have been perfect these past few years, but a direct attack is unheard of. So, Alpha Morax of the Aconite Clan... do you have any knowledge on whom would strike at you?"

A deep, brassy trumpet blast that belonged to the high lords of the Central Council. Ezra ran to the broken front doors, looking out across the lower city. His face went pale as he turned back toward the stairs. "Caspian! Rielle!" Ezra called out, his voice tight with sudden dread. "The Grand Assembly has just entered the lower gates! The six Great House Lords of the Realm just arrived... they only show up when they come to demand an accounting of the throne!" Caspian's grip on my waist tightened until I could barely draw air, his silver eyes flashing with a dangerous, lethal light.

I caught the attention of just about every wolf but I pulled on my clothes and headed into the single tent. Vale, the Alpha, Beta Joshua, and High Councilor Mark were sitting around a table with different flags on them. It looked like a movie set and a bad one at that. “Good of you to show up, Hector.” High Councilor Mark jeered at me. I shrugged. “It’s Beta Hector, and if you came straight from another month long mission, you would want to get as much sleep as you could too. Trust me. We all can’t sit in chairs and lord over people now can we?”

Then, without breaking eye contact, I sat down slowly, deliberately, adding just enough confidence in the way I moved to make it clear I wasn’t intimidated. If anything, I let a small, almost playful smile touch my lips. Let him choke on it. The meeting began shortly after. One of the other elders stood up, clearing his throat. “On behalf of the council,” he said formally, “we would like to congratulate Alpha Hector and Luna Ivonne on their union.” I inclined my head slightly. “Thank you.” Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Marcellus’ jaw tighten. Ah. So that was why he hadn’t opened the meeting himself.

Margeret was right, Delroy was punctual and Atarah was late 15 minutes, her hair dripping wet as she had slipped on whatever she could find first thing. “I apologize for my late arrival. Let’s begin.” She said once she entered the hall, huffing. Delroy gave a nod and then began the meeting. They had started off with the taxes and construction, which made her zone out 5 minutes into the meeting. “Your highness, do you agree?” Atarah rubbed her eyes and looked at the staring eyes of the four men. Agree? To what? She thought, she didn't want to look like a fool just before coronation, “Yes, I agree.” she smiled. Delroy’s eyes lit up with her agreement as he said, “well then, there will be a bal

Luckily, the meeting didn’t run as long as it has done in past weeks. “Thank you all, it was a good meeting. As you know, MacTire will be hosting a function for the first time for the winter solstice. I look forward to seeing each of you next month with the pack members you have chosen to bring. Invitations have been sent out and members of the high council will be attending as well as representatives from the werewolf kingdom. Please make sure you have procedures in place and warriors and law enforcement have clear instructions.” After what happened with the were-bear clan I needed to stress that last point, security being of the utmost importance. Each person said goodbye and closed out th