Chapter 5 - The Gathering Storm in Greyhaven
Back in Greyhaven, the pack house had been transformed into an armed garrison. Torches blazed along every wooden palisade, and royal guardsmen clad in steel armor stamped their heavy boots against the muddy courtyard.
Chancellor Holloway had arrived.
He sat at the head of the long oak table in the grand hall, his silver-trimmed robes immaculate despite the storm outside. His face was a mask of cold, calculating fury. Standing before him were Caleb Mercer, shaking visibly, and Brooke Caldwell, who was desperately trying to maintain her composure.
“Let me get this straight,” Holloway said, his voice smooth as glass yet laced with lethal poison. “An entire regiment of royal hunters, commanded by one of my most trusted captains, was ambushed and defeated by a half-dead prisoner and a scrawny bakery girl?”
“It wasn't just a prisoner, Chancellor,” Caleb stammered, sweating profusely under Holloway’s piercing gaze. “It was… the king. Mason’s scout said the seals broke. He’s loose.”
Holloway stood up so abruptly that his heavy oak chair crashed backward onto the stone floor. The temperature in the room plummeted.
“You absolute imbeciles,” Holloway hissed, stepping right up to Caleb and grabbing him by the collar of his tunic. “Do you have any idea what happens if Kiran reaches the northern lords? Every loyal pack from here to the capital will rise up in rebellion. Two years of meticulous planning, two years of holding the throne in a delicate balance, and it’s all unraveling because a pathetic omega decided to play savior!”
“We can track them,” Brooke interjected quickly, stepping forward with a desperate, ingratiating smile. “Mason and his entire elite division are still combing the Blackwood Ridge. They’re injured, exhausted, and trapped by the storm. They can’t have gotten far.”
Holloway released Caleb with a disgusted shove, wiping his hands on a silk handkerchief as if Caleb were contaminated filth.
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“Listen to me very carefully,” Holloway said, his eyes narrowing into cold slits. “If Mason fails to bring me the king’s head and the girl alive by midnight, I will burn Greyhaven to the ground. Every last pack member, every elder, every disloyal cur—wiped out for treason. Am I understood?”
Caleb swallowed hard, the color entirely drained from his face. He nodded mutely, realizing with sickening clarity that the very ambition that had driven him to reject Tessa and ally with the corrupt chancellor was now going to destroy everything he held dear.
