Chapter 5 Five

• Sebastian’s POV
• The council chamber reeks of expectation, thick and suffocating like a noose tightening around our throats. The elders sit in a half-circle, their faces carved from stone, eyes dark with the weight of generations. This room has seen centuries of blood oaths and power struggles and it will bear witness to another battle tonight.
• Luciano stands beside me, a fortress of silence, arms crossed over his chest. He does not need to speak for me to know his thoughts—they are my own, a simmering storm waiting to break.
• They expect compliance.
• They expect submission.
• They will get neither.
• The firelight casts shadows along the stone walls, flickering like ghosts of the past whispering of all the warriors who once knelt before this council but we are not them. We do not kneel.
• Elder Brinsley is the first to speak, his voice measured but unyielding. “Michelle will arrive in three lunar days.”
• The weight of those words settles over us like a declaration and a command wrapped in polite finality.
• Luciano doesn’t move. “We are aware”
• The tension stretches sharp and thin like a blade hovering over exposed flesh waiting to draw blood.
• Elder Caspian shifts in his chair, the candlelight glinting off the rings on his fingers. His gaze is steady but his patience is not infinite. “You understand what this means?”
• My lips curl. “It means the king wants his claim finalized.”
• Elder Cornwall leans forward, his sharp eyes gleaming like steel. “It means you have a duty to uphold.”
• Duty.
• A leash disguised as honor.
• Luciano’s jaw tightens, his shoulders rigid. “And if we refuse?”
• The air in the room shifts, an unspoken warning crackling between us like the moment before a storm.
• Brinsley exhales slowly. “You would reject the daughter of the werewolf king for an outcast?” Luciano and I share a glance between ourselves and then,
• Silence.
• They knew.
• Of course, they knew.
• The moment we brought her across our borders, the whispers began. Our mate. A girl without a pack. A girl they see as nothing. Alpha Mikhail’s might have pretended like he didn’t notice but he did. They must have contacted him. I regret sparing his pack now more then ever . We should have known he had something up his sleeves when he offered a traitors daughter to as as a peace treaty though we didn't know of the outcome. We had reasons for accepting his offer. One we're likely not going to talk about anytime soon until we decide what to do with Evana.
• Luciano speaks before I can. “She is ours”
• Simple. Unshakable.
• Caspian’s expression hardens. “Then reject her.”
• Like a direct order.
• The audacity nearly makes me laugh.
• I take a slow step forward, my presence pressing into the space between us, voice edged with quiet warning. “You do not tell us what to do.”
• Cornwall does not flinch. “Then do what is necessary. You cannot serve two masters ”
• The words dig into my skin like claws.
• “You speak as if we are weak,” I murmur, tilting my head. “As if we need the king’s favor to survive.”
• Cornwall ’s eyes narrow. “No, but neither do you need to make an enemy of him.”
• Luciano exhales, slow and measured. “He chose us because we are the strongest in the land. We do not answer to him.”
• Brinsley leans back, watching us. “And yet, even strength has limits.” he says as a threat veiled as wisdom.
• I chuckle, dark and humorless. “Do you fear him, Brinsley?” All of them pauses. Deafening silence engulf the room then a quiet admission.
• “I fear what happens when power is wasted on sentiment.” Brinsley says . I shake my head when he mention the word.
• Sentiment.
• As if this bond—the one pulling at my very being, demanding recognition were anything so trivial.
• Luciano turns to me. Our bond needs no words.
• Rejecting Evana isn’t an option.
• But neither is open defiance.
• For now.
• “Three lunar days,” Brinsley reminds us, standing. “Decide where your loyalties lie.”
• With that the meeting is over but the threat is visible in his voice.
• The doors shut behind us with a finality that rattles through my bones. The cold corridor is silent except for our footsteps.
• Luciano doesn’t speak right away, and neither do I. The weight of the conversation still lingers, a noose tightening around our throats.
• He finally exhales. “They think they have power over us.”
• “They think they have a choice.”
• I stop walking, turning to face him. His blue eyes mirror my own, dark with the same frustration clawing at my insides.
• “Evana is ours.” My voice is quiet but there is nothing soft about it.
• Luciano nods once but there is a shadow behind his eyes. A dangerous thought. A warning.
• “They will not let this go.”
• I know.
• They won’t stop until they get what they want.
• Three days.
• That is all we have before Michelle arrives.
• Before this fight becomes a war.
• But I will burn this entire kingdom to the ground before I let them take what is mine.