Chapter 16: 016
~ RONAN ~
I never understand why Caius, my lawyer, chooses to call instead of mindlinking, but I pick up anyway. I need to know the update on the fifty percent asset transfer to Roselle, and whatever he has to say, I need to hear it.
I hold up a hand to Roselle, excusing myself as I pick up the call.
"Alpha." His voice comes through the line. "I apologize for the sudden disturbance. There’s been a development regarding the contract filing."
"The council elders have flagged the clause. Specifically, the asset transfer provision, the fifty percent Westbrook territory reversion." He pauses. "Warren has filed a formal objection. He’s claiming the clause was inserted without his full understanding of the terms, and three of the elders are backing his position. They’re calling for a full review before the contract can be processed."
Bike rises in my throat. The contract has been signed, filed and ready.legally binded. What the fuck do they want again. I chelch fist so tight.
"He signed it, Caius." I remind him trying to keep my voice as even as I can.
"He did. But he’s arguing coercion. That you leveraged the alliance terms to pressure him into signing without adequate legal counsel present." Another pause. "And, Alpha... Warren is here. He came to the council himself this morning. He’s requesting a formal hearing. Today."
I look at Roselle across the breakfast tray. She’s watching me with those careful hazel eyes, reading my face the way she reads everything, quietly, thoroughly, missing nothing.
"I’ll be there in a few minutes," I say before ending the call.
I turn back to her. Those hazel eyes are already asking the question her hands haven’t formed yet.
"I have a meeting." I keep my voice even, trying to keep the fury off my face because it’s not hers to carry. "I’ll be back in a few hours. Celeste can stay if you want the company. Elias will come by later."
She shakes her head, a small sigh telling me exactly what she’s trying to say.
"I’m fine. I’ll be fine alone."
I look at her for a moment longer than necessary.
"There’s something off about her now," Kael whines. "She’s been acting... recluse. Like she doesn’t want us anymore."
"You’re thinking too much. She made us feed her, and that’s enough progress. Maybe she just wants to be alone," I say.
"Are you sure?" I ask and she nods.
"Sure. I’ll be fine. I’ll be right here.""
I pinch the bridge of my nose and let out a breath.
"Okay. I’ll be back."
I’m at the door when I look back at her one last time. She’s sitting upright in the bed, spine straight, hands folded in her lap, carrying that particular stillness she wears everywhere like armor.
Kael growls at the thought of leaving her alone, acting like it’s the worst mistake we’re about to make. But I shrug it off, knowing he’s getting too attached to her. He doesn’t want her out of our sight for even a second.
***
Entering the meeting room, I find Warren already seated across the table, looking like a man who has spent the entire morning carefully constructing his indignation, which, of course, he has.
Two council elders flank him on either side. Elder Mathis and Elder Crane, both of whom have been politically convenient for far too many Alphas for far too many years.
Nikolai takes his position behind my left shoulder without being asked.
I take a seat, staring directly at Warren. Fury is written all over him.
"Alpha Ronan." Elder Mathis folds his hands on the table. "Thank you for coming on such short notice. As you’ve been informed, there are concerns regarding the contractual terms filed yesterday."
"Warren signed the contract," I cut in. "In his own pack, not mine. Whatever concerns exist about the terms existed before the ink dried. He had every opportunity to raise them then."
A muscle ticks in Warren’s jaw.
"You didn’t tell me about the hidden clause," he mutters, trying to keep his voice under control. "Which only means you were plotting with that wench to steal half of my pack right out from under me!"
My blood boils. Kael snarls in my head, pushing against the edges of my control, but I remind myself this is a council meeting, not a war zone.
"She’s your sister, and call her Wench one more time, and you’ll have all your teeth rolling to thr floor. She has a name, call her by her name!"
"She is... Even if she is, she has no right to take what I never gave her."
"The contract identifies her as your sister, your words, Warren, and your signature." I tilt my head. "You called her your sister to my face. So I’m asking—how does a man’s sister arrive with no dowry, no clothing beyond what she’s wearing, and no possessions of any kind?" I let that sit.
"How does she arrive looking like she hasn’t had a proper meal in months? How does she arrive with injuries on her body that my pack physician, described as years of repeated, sustained harm?"
Warren says nothing.
"How does she arrive," I continue, my voice hardening because I fucking want to wrap my hands around his neck and snap it, but with the peace treaty we signed, it would only mean going back on my word. And I’m a man of my word.
"Unable to speak? And she wasn’t born that way. My pack physician confirmed her vocal anatomy is completely intact. Something happened to her. Someone made her lose her voice. And I’m looking at the man who had custody of her for years, and I’m asking how."
He scoffs. "And you think I would purposely punish my own sister? And you think all this was without cause? She’s a murderer. She killed the former Alpha. She should have been imprisoned, but she was spared out of mercy and given a rehabilitation term instead. The restricted privileges, all of it, were mandated consequences for what she did."
I look straight into his eyes for any evidence of a lie, but he seems to be telling the truth. Even so, I can sense he’s hiding something.
A tense silence fills the room, the weight of it pressing against everyone present.
I look at him, refusing to believe what he said is true. It’s hard picturing Roselle killing someone, or hurting anyone. She can’t fucking hurt a fly.
"She killed the former Alpha," I repeat his words.
"Yes."
"At what age?"
Warren blinks. "What?"
"How old was she," I say, "when she allegedly killed the former Alpha?"
A beat passes. A frown creases his brows. "She was, it doesn’t matter how old she was..."
"How old, Warren?" I grit out, anger creeping into my voice.
His jaw clenches, his teeth grinding so hard I can practically hear his molars scraping against each other.
"Six."
Six? The word drops like a bomb. He means to tell me a child murdered the Alpha? An Alpha?
I curl my fist into a ball, resisting the urge to slam it right through the table.
"Six years old," I say. "You’re telling me a six-year-old child killed a grown Alpha." I look at sternly. "Walk me through it. How exactly does a six-year-old child, mute, wolfless, unshifted, with no combat training, kill a full-grown Alpha in his prime?"
Warren opens his mouth.
"Specifically," I add.
He closes it.
"Because I’m looking at the facts," I continue, "and they don’t add up. A six-year-old child doesn’t have the physical capacity, the knowledge, or the means to kill an Alpha. Not without help." I lean forward slightly. "So either someone helped her, which raises questions about who, or she didn’t do it at all." I hold his gaze. "And someone decided a six-year-old girl made a convenient answer to a question nobody was supposed to ask."
Warren’s face has gone through several colors in the last thirty seconds, which fucking tells me I’m right.
Someone fucking framed her.
"You framed her," I say matter-of-factly.
"That is an outrageous—"
"You framed a six-year-old child for murder and locked her up." I rise slowly to my feet, anger surging through my veins—a fury I know I can no longer hold in. "And you had the audacity to call it mercy."
"Ronan," Kael growls, a deep, aching sound that says he’s done being suppressed. "Let me the fuck out."
Calm down, buddy.
Darkness is already creeping into my vision, the curse reacting to Kael’s anger. I can feel that strange energy building inside me, the same fucking thing that always appears whenever he gets too close to the surface. I know what it can do to the surroundings, to the people within close range, and to anything unfortunate enough to be closer. I know the damage it leaves behind.
"Fuck it, Ronan. I fucking need to show him... what he made her feel."
Kael surges forward even as I fight to keep him at bay.
I lose the battle the moment he snarls.
A deep, thunderous growl erupts through the room, the sound vibrating through the walls and sending the elders scrambling back in their chairs, fear flashing across their faces at what my curse might do.
Nikolai’s hand comes to my shoulder from behind, firm.
"Alpha." Nikolai’s voice is so low I almost don’t hear it. "Remember, you can’t do this here. Hold Kael in. You might end up destroying things you’ll regret. Think about the pack members outside. You don’t know how far the darkness might spread... please, rein Kael in."
I’m suddenly aware of the elders pressing back in their chairs. Aware of Warren’s Beta, who has been silent in the corner this entire time, going pale. Aware of the darkness bleeding into the edges of the room the way it does whenever Kael gets this close to the surface. But that’s not enough to convince Kael that Warren isn’t getting a piece of him.
My bones snap, Kael on the verge of transforming when suddenly a sweet scent, so familiar, so close by, hits our nose.
I inhale once. Twice. Three times. It’s faint.
Faint. That particular almost-extinguished candle quality I first scented on the stairs at Westbrook.
Roselle. She’s not in her room.
The realization hits me so fast it nearly knocks the rage right out of me. I can sense her heartbeat... It’s thrumming so loud, like she’s in some sort of trouble.
She’s somewhere in this building.
I glance at the council, then at Warren, before dashing through the door.
