Rejected Then Ruined
Thorne pressed, "the council rejected this woman three years ago on the grounds that she was unfit to influence pack leadership. Now she's sitting across from you negotiating twenty percent of our territory, and you expect us to believe that's a coincidence?"
"I expect you to remember," Kade said, voice going cold in a way that made even Thorne go quiet, "that the council's grounds for rejecting her three years ago were wrong. She wasn't unfit. She was underestimated, by every wolf in this hall, including me. And I have spent three years living with the consequences of that mistake." He turned to address the wider chamber now, not just Thorne, his voice carrying to every corner of the room.