Chapter 41 Kael's Testimony

Chapter 41 Kael's Testimony
Sienna's POV

The courtroom exploded.

Guards rushed toward Kael. Assembly members screamed at each other. The prosecutor slammed his fist on his table so hard papers flew to the floor.

Kael didn't move. He stood with his chin up, his eyes locked on me like nothing else in the room existed.

"Silence!" Celeste's voice cracked through the chaos like a whip. "The next person who shouts without being recognized will be removed from these proceedings immediately!"

The room shook into a tight, furious quiet.

The prosecutor smoothed his jacket. "Chief Blackthorn's emotional outburst has no place in a court of law."

"It has every place," Kael said. "Because love is why we're all here. And fear is why she's still in chains."

"You are out of order," the prosecutor said.

"Let him speak." Celeste's tone was calm, but iron ran through every single word. "He has the floor."

The prosecutor sat down, jaw locked tight.

Kael turned to face the full Assembly.

"I want to tell you who Sienna Voss was before I broke her," he said.

I stopped breathing.

"She was kind. She worked harder than anyone else in my pack. She never once asked for special treatment. She never fought back when others mocked her for being wolfless." He paused. "She just kept going. Every single day. Without a single complaint. Without anyone in my pack standing up for her."

"Chief Blackthorn" the prosecutor started.

"I'm not done," Kael said.

Celeste raised her hand for quiet.

"I let my beta call her a stray to her face. I let pack children throw stones at her door. I let my mother publicly name her a burden on the pack." His voice stayed steady, but the words cut through the room like a blade. "I never stopped any of it. Not once. Not for six years."

My chest pulled tight. I had buried those memories under everything else.

"Why?" Celeste asked.

"Because it was easier to believe she was weak than to admit I was a coward."

That word landed in the courtroom like a stone dropped in still water. Ripples of shock spread across every face.

"Every cruelty my pack aimed at her, I allowed," Kael continued. "Every insult. Every exclusion. I chose my status over her. I chose comfort over courage. I did it over and over until she had nothing left."

"This is irrelevant to whether she is dangerous," the prosecutor said.

"It is the only relevant thing!" Kael turned sharply. "She was not born dangerous. She did not choose this power. She survived. And surviving what we put her through alone, with a newborn, in the dead of winter — that is what activated the gene."

He took a slow breath.

"But there is something else. Something no one in this room knows."

The courtroom went dead still.

"My mother did not only shame Sienna into leaving," he said. "She filed a formal report to this Assembly. Six years ago. She listed Sienna as a potential threat and requested that she be monitored closely."

Celeste's spine stiffened. "I have no record of that report."

"Because someone here buried it," Kael said. "Someone on this council received that document and marked it classified. I found it two weeks ago in my mother's estate after she passed."

Murmurs tore through the room like fire through dry grass.

"You're saying someone in this Assembly knew Sienna could be gifted six years ago?" Celeste asked.

"Yes. And instead of warning her, helping her, or offering any guidance, they did nothing. They let her suffer every single day. They watched her fall apart and waited to see what would crawl out of the wreckage."

"That is a very serious accusation," Celeste said.

"I have the document," Kael replied. "Signed. Stamped. Council seal intact."

The room broke apart completely. Voices pitched high and frantic. Assembly members leaned toward each other. Some looked guilty. Some looked terrified.

I gripped my chains and made myself breathe.

Someone had known. Someone had watched me break on purpose. They had let me suffer just to see what I would become.

Pure, clean rage moved through me like a current I could not stop and could not hide.

"Order," Celeste said.

Silence returned fast.

"If that document exists, it will be examined fully," she said. "But Chief Blackthorn, finish your argument. Now."

Kael nodded. His shoulders settled.

"Sienna Voss is not a weapon," he said. "She is a mother who used every scrap of strength she had to protect her child. The same thing every single one of you would do." He looked across the rows of Assembly members. "Forty-two percent of you carry that same gene in your blood. Any of you could wake up tomorrow in her exact position. If you imprison her for surviving, you are hammering together the cage you may one day sit inside."

The room stayed completely still.

"She deserves to walk free," Kael said. "Not because of what I feel for her. But because she has done nothing wrong. She held herself together when every hand in her world worked to tear her apart." He looked straight at me, his voice dropping low. "She is stronger than every single person in this room. And we should be grateful she is not our enemy."

My throat burned. I turned away from his eyes.

"The council will consider this testimony," Celeste began. "Chief Blackthorn, you may..."

A voice cut through from the back of the room.

Calm. Certain. Absolute.

"I would like to make a proposal."

Every head turned.

Daemon Cross stood at the courtroom doors. Tall and broad and completely still. Three pack crests on his collar from three separate territories. He had not been there a moment ago.

"Mr. Cross," Celeste said carefully, "this is a closed proceeding."

"I submitted a formal request for entry three days ago," he said, walking forward without hurrying. "Your office approved it."

Celeste checked her notes. Her expression changed.

"You were scheduled for tomorrow," she said.

"I moved my travel up," Daemon replied, "after hearing Chief Blackthorn's testimony this morning."

He stopped ten feet from me. He studied me the way a general studies a map before a battle. Calculating. Careful. Completely unafraid of what I was.

"I have an offer for this court," he said. "One that resolves this matter before another vote is needed."

"What kind of offer?" Celeste asked.

Daemon turned and faced the full Assembly.

"I am offering to take Sienna Voss..."

The far doors of the courtroom burst open with a crash.