Now comes the part where we decide what kind of wolves we’re going to be.
“I can only imagine what your previous alphas told you about my mate.” I meet the gazes of Brynn, Dax, and Kael. “But I assure you, it was all wrong. Rowan isn’t here to harm any of us.”
Before I can continue, Taren rises slowly, every movement deliberate. She’s stronger now, steady on her feet, and the life back in her face, but the deep lines around her eyes tell a different story. One that wasn’t there before.
Power leaves marks, even when it’s removed.
“I managed to survive Malrik’s tricks, but it wasn’t without cost,” she says plainly. No dramatics. No excuses. “He didn’t only strive to control each of us. He nudged, whispered, twisted what I already feared until it felt like my own thoughts.”
A few of the alphas shift uncomfortably in their seats.
“I didn’t realize I was acting against my pack,” she continues. “Or this council. I believed I was protecting us. Only when it was too late, when I should have died, did I begin to see the truth.” Her purple eyes flick briefly to Rowan. “This Ashmark took that influence from me. Cleanly and without pain. Without stripping me of who I always should have been.”
She pauses, letting that sink in.
“She didn’t weaken or hurt me,” Taren finishes. “She gave me my freedom back.”
That earns her nods, slow, thoughtful ones.
Bram leans forward, speaking next. “I’ll second that.”
Every head turns.
“I didn’t make it as far down the rabbit hole as Taren,” he says with a shrug that doesn’t quite hide the tension in his shoulders. “But Malrik tried hard to get me there.” His mouth twists, humorless. “Tried to turn me into a weapon for the council.”
My jaw tightens.
His gaze slides briefly to Rowan—measured and respectful—before returning to the others. “She stopped it before things could get worse. And I know without a doubt in my sound mind, if the Ashmark wanted any of us dead,” he adds flatly, “we wouldn’t be sitting here having this conversation.”
The room goes quiet again. This time with understanding.
Brynn is the one who breaks the silence, her voice careful but steady. “No one here doubts what Rowan did for either of you. Or the good those actions accomplished.”She glances briefly at Rowan, then back to me. “But her power is unprecedented. What happens if she decides to turn it against us?”
The question isn’t cruel.
It’s cautious, and I don’t like it.
Kael nods a bit too enthusiastically. “I agree. This council has already been compromised once, and your mate was in the hands of the man who did so for how long? Two weeks?” He spreads his hands. “We have no way to prove that she isn’t manipulating all of us right now by playing ally. She shouldn’t even be in here right now, hearing this conversation.”
That has my wolf coming forward. A low growl rips from my chest before I can stop it, reverberating through the space and rattling more than a few nerves.
I lean forward, voice lethal. “Do you think I’ve been played for a fool, Kael?” My gaze locks on his. “Do you think I don’t know my own mate or mind?”
He shrugs, infuriatingly calm. “If the alphas were manipulated then…”
I’m on my feet before the thought finishes forming.
My chair slams into the wall behind me with a crack that echoes through the room. Power rolls off me in a wave—controlled, but unmistakable.
“I am not them.”
The words leave no room for debate.
For a split second, I consider exactly how easily I could end this. How fast and final my actions could be. My wolf urges me forward, muscles coiling and teeth aching.
But then Dax speaks.
“Rowan isn’t the only potential threat in this room,” he says evenly.
