300 Alpha Kings Came to Laugh at the Wolfless Omega — Then Every One of Them Fell to Their Knees

High Queen Sable’s eyes darted frantically around the high battlements. The fifty elite archers who had stood guard beside her had already thrown their bows over the wall, dropping to their knees with their foreheads pressed against the icy stone.

She was completely, utterly alone.

"You think you've won?" Sable spat, her voice trembling with a mixture of terror and venomous pride. She pressed her back harder against the iron door of the tower. "You think these mindless brutes will follow you, girl? You're a child! You know nothing of politics, of trade, of winter harvests! Without me, the North will starve!"

"The North starved under your reign, Sable," Cassian said, stepping forward, his dark eyes cold as ice. "You taxed the southern border villages into oblivion. You stole their children for tribute. You let the weak freeze in the kennels while you drank wine imported from the coast."

Sable snarled, lunging forward with her jewel-encrusted dagger, aiming straight for Cassian's throat in a desperate, suicidal strike.

Cassian didn't even move his sword.

Lily simply raised her left hand. An invisible wall of force struck Sable’s wrist, snapping her hand back with a sharp CRACK. The dagger spun out of her fingers, clattering over the stone ledge and plunging into the courtyard below.

Sable collapsed onto her knees, clutching her broken wrist, screaming in pain.

"I will not execute you, Sable," Lily said, her voice calm, echoing over the silent, kneeling army in the courtyard.

Sable looked up, her face pale and sweat-slicked, a flicker of wicked hope flashing in her eyes. "You... you won't?"

"Execution is a quick mercy," Lily continued, her silver eyes glowing brightly in the moonlight. "And mercy is something you never showed to the children locked in your cellars."

Lily turned toward the vast courtyard below.

"My lords!" Lily called out, her voice sweeping over the three thousand kneeling warriors and the two hundred and ninety-eight Alpha Kings who had marched out from the grand hall to watch the outcome. "High Queen Sable stripped this land of its honor. She used Moonsilver—an ancient, forbidden weapon—to murder my ancestors and suppress the truth. What is the law of the North for a ruler who uses dark magic against her own people?"

From the front row of the kneeling kings, the old king who had first recognized Lily—King Orrin of the Frost-Peak Clan—raised his head.

"The Law of Frost!" Orrin shouted, his deep voice carrying through the freezing air. "Stripped of title! Stripped of blood! Exiled to the Outer Wastes without coat, blade, or fire!"

"NO!" Sable shrieked, her voice turning into a high-pitched wail. "You cannot exile me! I built this kingdom! Orrin, you swore an oath to my husband!"

"I swore an oath to the throne of Iron Reach," King Orrin replied sternly, standing up and bowing deeply toward Lily. "Not to a tyrant who cowers behind poison and gray metal."

The chant began softly in the courtyard, rising from a few dozen voices before swelling into a deafening roar that shook the snow from the mountain peaks.

"EXILE! EXILE! EXILE!"

Lily looked down at the sobbing, broken woman at her feet. She raised her right hand, and the heavy iron doors of the keep's outer gate slowly swung open, revealing the endless, blizzard-swept darkness of the Northern Wastes.

"Leave Iron Reach, Sable," Lily commanded softly. "If your feet ever cross the border of these lands again, the earth itself will consume you."

Two Keepers stepped forward, grabbing Sable by her arms, dragging her down the battlements toward the outer gates. Sable screamed, cursed, and begged for mercy, but her cries were swallowed by the howling wind as she was thrust out into the dark, freezing blizzard.

The heavy iron gates slammed shut behind her, locked forever.

The courtyard fell into a deep, breathless silence.

Three thousand warriors and three hundred Alpha Kings stood up from the snow. They turned toward the high battlements where Lily stood, illuminated by the four glowing silver wings of light behind her.

King Orrin drew his broadsword, holding the hilt up toward the sky.

"HAIL THE SOVEREIGN!" Orrin roared at the top of his lungs.

"HAIL LILY AURELIUS! HAIL THE MOON-BINDER!" the three thousand men echoed, their voices thundering through the night, smashing weapons against shields in a rhythmic, deafening salute.

Lily looked out over the vast sea of men, her heart pounding in her chest. For eight years, she had been invisible. A ghost scrubbing tiles in the dark. Now, the entire world was bowing at her feet.

She felt a gentle, warm hand slip into hers.

Cassian stood beside her, his dark hair catching the silver light of her wings. He wasn't looking at the crowd. He wasn't looking at the castle. He was looking only at her, his face filled with an expression of pure, unadulterated devotion.

"You did it, My Queen," Cassian whispered softly.