Chapter 159 Chapter 159

Chapter 159 Chapter 159
Asher's POV

I couldn't sit still the whole drive to Taylor's house, Hunter's discovery replaying over and over in my mind, hope and fear tangled together so tightly I could barely tell them apart anymore.

We told Taylor everything the moment we arrived.

Watching relief and cautious hope spread slowly across her face as she absorbed what we had found.

"You're sure about this," she said.

"The law was really just about some old scandal, not actual danger?"

"As sure as old records can make us," Hunter said.

"Maria's compiling everything into a formal presentation for the council."

"Thank you," she said, pulling both of us into a tight hug, tears gathering in her eyes.

"Both of you and that's for fighting for this instead of just accepting it."

We stayed with her a while longer, going over the plan, before I finally headed home that evening, needing to clear my head before the vote arrived in two days.



Mom was waiting when I got there, sensing immediately that something weighed heavy on me.

"Talk to me" she said, settling across from me at the kitchen table the same way she had months earlier.

Right after Dorian had put a blade to my throat.

I told her everything.

The law and the fabricated history Hunter and Maria uncovered.

My fear that even with proof, the council might still choose tradition over truth.

"I keep thinking about you and Dad," I admitted.

"How you two never got to fight for what you had, openly, the way I'm trying to fight for Taylor now."

Mom's expression softened, old grief surfacing behind her eyes.

"Your father made his choice a long time ago," she said quietly.

"He chose stability over us and I've made my peace with that, mostly.

But I've also spent years wondering what might have happened if he had fought harder, the way you're fighting now."

"Do you regret that he didn't," I asked.

"I regret that neither of us tried," she said honestly.

"We simply accepted what the council and circumstance decided for us, because fighting felt impossible at the time and I don't want that same regret for you, Asher."

"I don't intend to just accept this," I said firmly.

"Whatever it takes, I'm not losing her to some fabricated law nobody bothered questioning for generations."

"Good," Mom said, reaching across the table to squeeze my hand.

"Then don't and fight for her the way your father never fought for me and you have something I never had, Asher and real chance."

I sat with that for a long while after she went to bed, understanding more clearly than ever exactly what I stood to lose if the council refused to listen.

And exactly what I owed myself and owed Taylor, by refusing to simply accept it quietly the way my parents once had.



Maria called an emergency meeting the next morning.

Her expression tight with something beyond just nerves about the upcoming vote.

"I found something else," she said, once Hunter, Taylor, and I had gathered around her desk.

"About the elder pushing hardest for enforcement. Councilor Aldous."

"What about him?" Hunter asked.

Maria pulled up a genealogy chart on her screen, lines connecting names across generations.

"I traced his family lineage back through the records," she said.

"Aldous is a direct descendant of the council member who originally blocked that marriage centuries ago and the same one who fabricated the law we found evidence of yesterday."

My stomach turned.

"So exposing the truth about the law's origin doesn't just embarrass some anonymous historical figure."

"It exposes his own family's founding scandal," Maria confirmed.

"Publicly and In front of the entire council. His family has built its reputation for generations partly on being seen as the guardians of tradition and covenant law. This would undermine that completely."

"That's why he's fighting so hard to enforce it now," Taylor replied slowly.

"Not because he actually believes it protects the pack and because admitting it's fake destroys his own family's legitimacy."

"That's my read on it too," Maria piped grimly.

"Which means when we present this evidence, he's not simply going to accept it gracefully. He has far too much personal stake in keeping the law intact."

"Then we need to be ready for him to fight back hard," Hunter said.

"Not just with procedural objections and personally, if it comes to that."

"I don't care how hard he fights," I replied with fury and determination hardening fast inside me.

"He's spent generations letting his family's reputation matter more than actual justice. I'm not letting that cost Taylor her future."



We spent the following day preparing carefully, Maria organizing every document, every genealogy record.

And every piece of evidence into a clear, undeniable presentation.

Hunter worked alongside her tirelessly, both of us united now in a way that felt entirely different from the rivalry that had once defined our whole relationship.

Taylor sat with us through most of it, quiet but steady.

And occasionally offering insight from her own experience navigating council politics this past year.

"Whatever happens tomorrow," she said late in the evening as we finally finished the last of the preparations.

"I want you both to know how much this means to me and not just fighting the law itself. Fighting together, the way brothers should have gotten to from the very beginning."

Hunter looked at me, something warm and genuine passing between us.

"We should have been doing this from the start," he said.

"Standing together instead of competing over everything."

"Better late than never." I replied managing a tired smile despite the exhaustion and nerves still coiled tight in my chest.

Taylor reached for both our hands, holding them together for a moment, grateful tears gathering in her eyes.

"Tomorrow," she said quietly.

"Whatever the council decides, I need you both to know that just having you fight for me like this already means everything."

"We're not losing tomorrow" I said firmly, though the fear underneath my certainty hadn't fully faded.

"Whatever Councilor Aldous throws at us, whatever he's willing to risk protecting his family's legacy, the truth is still the truth. Eventually, that has to matter more than old pride."

I hoped, standing there with Hunter and Taylor in the quiet aftermath of a long, exhausting day of preparation, that I actually believed my own words as fully as I wanted to.

Tomorrow would tell us for certain.