34: Changes to Feel Strongly About

**Coal**

Raegan held her head high as she took the throne, and I resumed the position behind her. I placed my hands on her shoulders once more.

The council entered after we were comfortable, and they all had sneers on their faces. Aside from Eaton and Charles. Those two arrogant bastards had wide smirks on their lips.

I growled lowly at the sight of the pair.

Raegan patted my hands on top of her shoulders, tutting gently at me.

I huffed but heeded her silent warning. This was not the time or place for my anger. She would be facing the consequences of killing Kai, and we both needed to be clear-minded here.

I linked the Queen's Guard and watched as they silently filed into the room. Gabe was the last to enter, and he crossed straight to where the thrones sat. He moved past the council like they were nothing, and knelt at the foot of the steps before Raegan released him and he came to stand behind me to the left.

He was quickly proving his loyalty to my mate, and that would be considered heavily in the decision-making process of his pack membership.

The council didn't kneel, nor did they bow.

Raegan cleared her throat, and I felt her shoulders tense beneath my hands.

"Do you not kneel for your royal couple, Elders?" She asked, tilting her head to the side.

"We do not kneel for posers, Miss Martin," Eaton snarled.

Raegan let out a high-pitched noise of amusement, "posers? What are we? In a coming-of-age movie from the 1980's? C'mon Eaton, you can do better than that."

He growled at her, and the room erupted in growls in response to it. None of which were from me or Raegan.

The council froze as a whole, and I couldn't help but smirk as I bent down and kissed Raegan's head before locking my eyes on the council as I spoke in Raegan's ear.

"Do you see how they tremble before the power you wield with our people my love?" I said quietly. Not quietly enough to not be heard by them though. I wanted them to hear everything said in this room so that they knew just how out of their depths they were.

Raegan purred in response to my words, and I stood up straight again, still maintaining my glare on the council. They were shifting from foot to foot, and looking around the room like they were expecting booby traps to start swallowing them whole one by one.

I chuckled.

"What was that about not kneeling for posers?" Raegan batted her long lashes at them tauntingly. "Gabe, do you kneel for pretenders?" She asked, not looking at her guard.

"No, your Majesty." He answered stiffly.

"Marie? How about you?"

"No, Majesty."

"Forty?"

"Absolutely not, my Queen."

"Liam?" She slowly smiled with every name she called out.

"Not in the council's wildest dreams." Liam snarled.

Raegan stood, and descended two steps, holding her hands behind her back as she tilted her chin up into the air. She looked down on the council with an air of superiority that was beyond natural to her.

And with the most authoritative tone I'd ever heard use, she commanded, "Kneel."

The guards fell to a knee in unison and bowed their heads deeply at their Queen's command, and the council shook under the weight of her order.

She didn't move. Didn't speak. Didn't so much as breathe in a different pattern as she waited for the council to crumble to their knees. And crumble they did. One by one they fell to their knees, unable to resist the command from not just an Alpha, but their rightful Queen.

"Hmm," Raegan hummed thoughtfully as sweat ran down each member's neck and face, "it looks like you were wrong, Eaton. Either, I *am* your Queen, or you *do* kneel for posers."

The guards snickered, and Eaton's face went red with his fury, but he could not rise from where he knelt. She had commanded him to kneel and kneel he would until his superior released him from her hold.

I smiled at her, feeling my affection for her grow. She didn't need to lay so much as a finger on them to get them to crumble before her, and it was such a fucking turn-on.

"Now that I've witnessed your insubordination extending past bloodlines, I must admit, I have little faith in the true nature of the council. What is it that you all rushed to speak to myself and the King about?" She asked coldly, pacing along the step that she'd stopped on.

"You murdered Alpha Kai." Martha hissed.

I growled lowly, "you will address your Queen *without* that tone, or you will face the repercussions. Understood, Councilwoman?"

She huffed, and grit her teeth.

"I did," Raegan acknowledged, "I murdered the man who kidnapped myself and my younger brother, marked me against my will, and tortured me for six months. What decision have you come to about this fact?"

"You are to be tried for your crimes!" Eaton hollered. Raegan paused, and then she sat down on the step she stood on. She crossed her legs slowly and leaned her elbow on her knee before placing her chin in her hand.

"Rise," she said.

The council got to their feet, and the guards followed suit, resuming their stances in the various places of the room they'd taken up.

"Tell me," Raegan tilted her head to the side, "would the people agree with the council if you tried to prosecute me for killing him?"

She paused, looking between each council member. They were trying to look impassive, but their collective apprehension was palpable. I rounded the throne and sat on the step beside Raegan.

"The people deserve to know that justice will be served despite who committed the crimes," Martha snapped, glaring at my mate.

I rolled my eyes, "the same justice that should have been given to Raegan when she presented the council with the months of evidence of Kai not only stalking her but harassing her and her family?"

"That was diff--"

"How so?" Raegan cut off Charles.

He swallowed audibly.

"Because the only difference I see here, is he stalked me unprovoked. He threatened me unprovoked. He kidnapped me *unprovoked.* So, council, what other than the fact that I was innocent when he took me and he was guilty when I tried to press charges is the fucking difference?!" She shouted her question, and it reverberated across the throne room.

The council froze in place and cast their eyes down.

They were caught playing favorites. Perhaps even more than that, and if Raegan wanted to they would be disbanded right this moment. All she had to do was give the command. After all of this bullshit, I had no doubt that the people would agree with the verdict.

"The difference," Raegan said after it was clear none of them would respond, "is that I, am a woman. I endure. I am *expected* to endure. I was expected to endure his torture. I was expected to endure his harassment. Endure bearing his mark. Endure living with a forced connection between him and me. But I... I will not endure this." She shook her head and rose to her feet, "I will not endure another moment of being painted the villain for getting what I saw as my justice. I am not one to play God, but he took *everything* from me." She pointed at her chest, emphasizing her point. I stood beside her, not touching her but giving her the support of my presence. "It's clear none of you give a damn, but let me show you this." She turned around and showed them her back. It was exposed through her backless gown, and the scars that littered it were on display for all.

The nearly dozen council members who stood before us gasped at the sight of her back. She turned around and looked at them once more, "that's only part of it. He allowed and encouraged his *pack* to whip me for any and all alleged slights I made against him. Later, when my mate came to get me, Kai took me to a house in Arizona where he forcibly marked me in the presence of my younger brother, and after I recovered from the stress of that injury, he whipped me in the basement of that house for hours until I managed to escape with the help of Gabe and make it to Alpha Grace's pack. So, tell me, would you have heard me when I told you this? Would you have seen the havoc that he reeked on my life?"

They shifted uncomfortably, and didn't say a word. They wouldn't have. They would have listened to Kai and taken his word over hers. Anything to make themselves feel better about supporting that heinous monster.

"I do not feel safe knowing that you as a group are what is expected to protect wolves everywhere of all kinds. I do not trust you with our pups, or our future. I will not be standing trial, and you all better count yourselves lucky that I haven't let my guards tear you to shreds for what you have allowed to happen, and for what you have said to me today." She glared down at them all, "If I were you all, I would watch myself. I will not hesitate to do with you what I wish given the right opportunity." Disgust dripped from her tone, "dismissed."