8
+15 BONUS
I stared at the verdict in my hands, barely believing what I was reading. My silk dress – a gift from Emma, deep blue with silver threading that matched Marcus’s pendant – rustled as my hands shook.
“The Storm Shadow Pack will be absorbed into Blood Moon territory,” Alexander explained, his Alpha authority filling the room.
“Complete merger. Their lands, their resources, everything.”
“They’ll never agree,” I said, though hope flickered in my chest. The gems Emma had woven into my hair caught the light, a stark
contrast to the rags I’d worn in that basement.
Alexander’s smile was predatory. “They have no choice. We control their hunting grounds, their trade routes. Refuse, and they
starve. Their pack dies.”
Emma squeezed my hand, her own outfit equally regal. “There’s more. Alexander’s taking evidence of Marcus’s murder to the
Pack Council next week.”
“The formal judgment will be then,” Alexander added. “We’ll take you in the pack helicopter. You should see justice done.”
I touched Marcus’s pendant, now set in pure gold. “Yes. I should.”
The Council chambers loomed over us, ancient stone walls etched with wolf runes. As we landed, a familiar scent hit me – but
wrong, sour with desperation.
Sarah rushed toward us, Jamie trailing behind her. Both were filthy, their clothes torn from months of exile. Sarah’s once–perfect
hair hung in matted clumps. Jamie’s face was gaunt, his Beta token long gone.
I tensed, my custom leather boots shifting on the marble, but Sarah fell to her knees.
“Please,” she begged, grabbing my dress with dirt–stained hands. “Spare Ryan. Take the territory, take everything, but don’t let
them jail him.”
Guards pulled her back, but she kept pleading. Her designer clothes had been replaced by rags, her manicured nails broken and
caked with mud.
