I kept my gaze on their forces across the distance.
“Come forward,” I said. “Under my word as alpha, you will be granted safe passage.”
A long silence stretched, and I felt a flicker of doubt, and then it happened. A wolf broke free of the ranks and started to walk towards us. Then another. And then Deryn himself.
I’d hoped he was here; I hadn’t counted on it, though, but seeing him…seeing him turned that feeling of certainty I had just moments ago into unshakeable faith. Their formation shifted as they started to descend the ridge—slowly, cautiously, but still moving.
Behind me, Diesel whispered, “Holy shit, it’s working.” He paused. “I just don’t know who for.”
I stepped out of my territory as the barrier lowered, and the first of the Pack Council stepped onto the Hollow, cautious and suspicious, trying to pretend they held control when their scent said otherwise. But still, they were here.
Killian waited at the front, arms crossed, every bit the beta who’d rip out a throat without hesitation. Diesel stood next to him—scowling, pulsating with energy, challenging anyone to step out of line.
I stayed outside of the boundary. Rowen moved to my right, steady, chin high, the Hollow at her back.
Behind us, my pack gathered. Wounded warriors leaning on one another. Elders standing tall. Mothers clutching their young. Every wolf who had bled defending this land stood waiting.
Waiting to watch.
The perfect audience, along with the alphas who accompanied the Pack Council, who had fought against us under the beliefwewere the problem.
Some hovered near the boundary, but enough were here.
My top lip snarled in disgust for a brief moment. The very thing I’d vowed wouldn’t happen, I’d invited in. A Pack Council delegation stepped into the Hollow. They tried not to look unnerved.
They failed.
I was sure they felt it; how could they not? The Hollow had a weight to it—it pressed against them, measuring, judging, remembering their trespasses.
I didn’t need to speak to draw their attention. Every pair of eyes was already on me.
Deryn stepped forward, flanked by two alphas I barely recognized—one tense, one pale. “Alpha Wolfe,” Deryn said stiffly. “We are here to conclude the hearing.”
A laugh tore out of Diesel before he could stop it. “A hearing?” he echoed. “After you razed a territory? After you tortured one of ours? You think you’re still holding a hearing?”
The Pack Council bristled.
Rowen lifted her chin. “You came here under the guise of law, but your wolves attacked us twice tonight. You came for war, not judgment.”
Deryn straightened, voice clipped. “We came to restore balance.”
“Balance?” Killian growled. “Where is the balance in killing? Of torturing?”
A flicker of confusion—or guilt—crossed one of the Council alphas’ faces. Deryn hid his reactions better.
I stepped forward. “Before we speak of law,” I said quietly, deadly, “we speak of proof.”
I nodded to the side. Two of my pack carried forward a stretcher—simple wood, nothing ceremonial—holding Brand’s barely-living body. The Pack Council wolves recoiled. Brand’s face was still swollen, unrecognizable to those who didn’t know him. His bruises were still fresh. The puncture wounds were still open, not healing.
He looked like what he was, a wolf who had been beaten, tortured, and left to die.
He was the first blow in the Council’s undoing. Gasps rippled through the Hollow. Even the Pack Council wolves flinched.
Deryn paled. “What have you done?”
I snorted in disgust. “We found him, where your forces left him,” I said. “They didn’t even bother hiding their work.”
“That is a lie?—”
