Chapter 15 - The Council of Blood
The following morning, the grand hall was filled once again, but the tension was entirely different. Representatives from twelve surrounding regional packs had arrived uninvited, crowding into the great hall. They hadn't come to pay tribute; they had come to demand answers.
Alpha Brennen of the Iron Ridge Pack—a massive, scarred brute known for his brutality—stepped forward, slamming a heavy iron-shod staff against the marble floor.
"We didn't travel fifty miles through mountain snow to bow to a human girl who claims she's an alpha!" Brennen barked, his voice echoing menacingly. "Where is Donovan? Where is the true bloodline? If the Ashwood Pack has fallen to a wolfless impostor, Iron Ridge will take the territory by right of conquest!"
A murmur of agreement rippled through the visiting pack leaders.
Vera didn't flinch. She sat at the head of the table, her expression as cold and expressionless as carved marble. She didn't raise her voice. She didn't call for guards.
"You speak of right of conquest, Brennen," Vera said, her voice cutting through the murmurs like a razor-sharp blade. She stood up slowly, her movement effortless.
As she took a single step forward, the temperature in the grand hall plummeted instantly. Frost began to creep across the massive stained-glass windows. The heavy iron-shod staff in Brennen’s hand suddenly glowed white-hot, forcing the burly alpha to drop it with a sharp curse as it scorched his palms.
"You think power belongs to whoever shouts the loudest in a room full of cowards," Vera continued, her eyes flashing with that terrifying, luminous silver light. "You think a pack is defined by how many teeth you can bare when you're cornered."
She raised her hand slightly. A wave of crushing, absolute gravity swept across the hall. Twelve regional alpha leaders—men and women who had terrorized their own territories for decades—were simultaneously forced to their knees, their heads slamming against the cold floorboards as the air was sucked from their lungs.
Brennen clawed at the stone, his eyes wide with stark, unadulterated terror as he stared up at her. "Please... mercy..."
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"Mercy is something you earn by respecting the peace," Vera said quietly, standing directly over him. "You came here to test the new order. Consider your lesson learned. Go back to your packs, tell them what you saw, and let them know that anyone who challenges the Ashwood territory will find out just how heavy silence can really be."
With a flick of her wrist, the crushing pressure vanished. The twelve alphas scrambled backward in absolute panic, tripping over each other as they scrambled out of the hall and fled the compound without looking back.
