Chapter Fifty-Seven: Carol's POV
Vasquez nodded, some of the tension in her shoulders easing at this evidence of a plan. "I'll send word. The hearing's scheduled for this afternoon—they're not giving you much time to prepare."
"Because they don't want me to prepare," I said. "They want me walking in there scrambling to respond, defensive and off-balance, making it easier to push through whatever narrative Thornton's already sold to the rest of the Council."
After Vasquez left, I stood at the window.
I tried to use the method Simon had taught me, to look at the threat calmly and sort through the chaos.
To forge that letter required significant effort. Someone needed access to my scent, familiarity with Council protocols, and knowledge of the Blackwood family's interests.
These were not things an ordinary person could accomplish.
This narrowed the field of suspects, but also raised the stakes—whoever was behind this had resources and connections.
I left my room. The corridor was busier than usual, but no one wanted to be caught gossiping.
As I approached, conversations stopped. Some people even lowered their heads.
A single morning of rumor had washed away months of trust I'd worked to build.
As I passed, Belinda was holding court in the common area with her people. She was surrounded by admirers and sycophants who treated her every word as gospel truth.
She saw me coming and deliberately didn't lower her voice.
That tone was familiar, like she'd been preparing for a long time, just waiting to deliver this blow.
"I told Simon all along that bringing a human girl into this family would lead to trouble," she said, her tone perfectly calibrated. "But he wouldn't listen, insisted Carol was his daughter and deserved our protection. And now? Nearly got three pack members killed. She couldn't handle it alone and had to get outsiders to help finish the rescue."
Seraphina stood beside her mother, both dressed with deliberate elegance, as if to remind me I never belonged here.
Seraphina's expression was colder than Belinda's, as if my presence in this family was an insult to her.
Several pack members stood nearby. I recognized them from Council sessions and pack gatherings—people who had never openly opposed me before, but now looked at me differently, with calculation in their eyes.
Derek stood at the edge of the crowd, jaw clenched, barely containing his anger.
"I was right there during the entire rescue operation," Derek's voice cut through Belinda's words, making several people flinch. He stepped forward from the back of the crowd, positioning himself protectively in front of me. To be honest, it looked a bit foolish, but also touching. "I watched exactly how Carol caught that sentry. She was the one who interrogated him. No outside help, no intelligence from the Blackwood family. She's just far more capable than any of you are willing to believe," he said.
Belinda's smile didn't change, but her eyes did, as if reassessing this new variable she hadn't accounted for.
"Derek, dear, I understand you went on a mission with Carol and feel some loyalty to her. But surely you can see that finding the hostages so quickly in such a vast area—relying solely on what one sentry told her—seems insufficient."
She patted Seraphina's hand lightly, her tone still measured.
Derek didn't back down. He stepped forward, his voice lower but every word carrying fire. "All I see is you desperately trying to smear her, ignoring the eyewitness standing right in front of you. Carol was injured by a transformed wolf protecting me during that rescue. She bled for this pack, brought our people home alive. This is how you repay her? By calling her a traitor?"
The surrounding people began to waver. Some nodded, agreeing with Derek's defense; others hesitated, unsure which side to believe.
Belinda's face went cold, making it clear Derek would pay for today's words later, but not now with so many watching.
I grabbed Derek's arm. His muscles were tense; I could feel his wolf surging inside him, about to lose control.
"Enough." My voice wasn't loud, but it carried command. "Come with me."
Derek looked like he wanted to argue, to continue this fight he truly believed in. But the expression on my face must have made him understand that further entanglement would help no one.
I pulled him away from Belinda's group, though he kept glaring back as if memorizing their faces for future payback.
"You can't let them talk about you like that," Derek said. "After everything you did, everything you risked. They have no right to question your loyalty."
"They have every right," I said. "This is how pack politics works. Every time I win, someone wants to pull me down even more, because they can't stand my success. If I'm legitimate, if I truly deserve that Council seat, then they have to face the fact that maybe they were wrong from the beginning."
We reached the small training yard Marcus used. It was empty between training sessions. Derek leaned against the wall, still carrying residual anger but having cooled from the rage that had nearly made him shift in front of Belinda's people.
"So what are you going to do?" he asked.
"Just let them spread lies? Wait for the Council to convict you based on forged evidence and Belinda's gossip?"
"I'm going to walk into that hearing this afternoon and let them look me in the eye while they accuse me of treason," I said. "Then I'm going to dismantle their case piece by piece, using the only thing I truly have—what actually happened during that rescue."
Derek looked at me for a long time. I could see he understood this wasn't a matter of courage alone. This was political maneuvering, where every word mattered, where every piece of evidence would be scrutinized, and whoever told the more believable story would win.
"They're going to come at you hard," he finally said. "Thornton's been waiting for this opportunity since you took that seat. Belinda's been accumulating resentment for years, and now she's using it against you. As for whoever actually forged that letter, we don't even know what resources and connections they have."
"I know." The sun had risen high; the morning mist had long since burned away, and the training yard was exposed to harsh daylight. This light was too bright for this kind of conversation. "So I'm going to use everything I can. Starting with Marcus and Leon, getting them ready to testify to what they saw during the rescue."
I found Marcus in the armory, cleaning weapons with focused attention to every detail. When I pushed the door open, he looked up and immediately read the severity of the situation from my expression.
"The Council hearing this afternoon," he said. "About the Blackwood accusation."
"They have a letter," I closed the door. "Says I wrote it, promising to cede territory in exchange for intelligence on the hostages' location. The letter has my scent mark. The details are complete. It looks real."
Marcus set down what he was doing, his expression changing. "It's all fake. We all know how you found the hostages—you caught their sentry and forced him to tell you where they were holding our people. No outside help."
"The Council doesn't know I have that ability," I reminded him. "I've never made it public because I wasn't sure how they'd react. If they knew I could extract truth from people through willpower alone, how do you think they'd see me? Now I can't explain it clearly without sounding like I'm making it up on the spot."
He was silent for a moment. "You need me to testify," he said. "To confirm I was there, saw you interrogate that sentry, that there was no outside involvement. We acted solely on the intelligence you extracted from him. We don't need to go into detail about the methods used."
"Can you do that without revealing the full extent of my abilities?" I asked. "I'm not trying to hide things from you or Leon, but if the Council thinks my power is too dangerous, even if they can't convict me of collaborating with outsiders, they could use this as a reason to expel me."