Chapter 143 143
Amy's POV
I was invited to the council meeting. I almost didn't go. I didn't go through everything I went through to attend a council meeting. The same hypocritical people who have been mad at Damien for no reason for so many years. But they helped out when he needed it finally redeeming themselves this time around.
I also didn't want to go because my son was three days old and I didn't want to put him down. I spent three days holding him and sleeping when he slept and watching Damien hold him with so much love in his eyes, and leaving that room to go sit in front of a council felt like a very poor use of my time.
But Damien said I didn't have to go and that made me want to go immediately.
I left the baby with my parents, who accepted their responsibility because they loved their grandson and babysitting him wasn't a problem to them. Even my brother offered to help out.
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The council room had every Alpha present. Including Alpha Orland, our Red Moon Pack's alpha and Brian father. I noticed him when I walked in. He was sitting at the far end with an expression that was clearly showing he didn't want to be here because it was a humiliation for him.
Brian and Richard were already seated when I arrived. Separated. Brian on the left, Richard on the right, warriors beside each of them.
Richard had been caught trying to leave the territory three days ago and he didn't fight it, from what Lucas told me. He just stopped moving and let them take her. He didn't look like someone in denial about where he was.
Brian looked like himself. He looked like a complete different version of himself. It's not that I came to access him anyway but I came to witness justice for myself, Damien and my entire family.
I sat down across from them. Damien was beside me. He kept reassuring me that everything was fine and no one would dare to bother us today. The council head, an older Alpha from the northern packs who had been in the role for decades opened the proceedings and asked me to speak.
I stood up.
Richard had been running a rogue operation for years, disguised as the Dark Hunters to divert suspicion away from himself and toward a mysterious outside organization. The actual Dark Hunters were his people. The attacks, the coordinated violence across multiple pack territories, the targeting of Damien's pack specifically, all of it traced back to Richard. I had confirmation from three separate sources including a captured member of the operation who had agreed to testify.
I moved to my father.
Brian had stabbed him during an attack on Damien's pack while presenting himself as an ally. He did it deliberately and then continued to move through our circles as though nothing had happened. My father's testimony was in the record. His wound was documented.
I moved to the kidnapping.
I laid it out plainly. The coordinated border attack as a distraction. Being taken while the pack was deliberately scattered. The location, the conditions, the purpose. Richard's plan to extract my child's blood. Brian's full willing participation in all of it.
I was almost finished when Brian spoke.
"Amelia." His voice was quiet. He was addressing me directly. "I need you to hear me for a moment. Before this goes any further. We were friends once. Real ones. You know me better than anyone in this room."
I looked at him.
He held my gaze. "Whatever I did... I did it because I wanted to protect you. I knew about your bloodline before Damien did. I knew what it meant. I knew what people would come after you for and I was trying to position myself to keep you safe. The methods were wrong. I know that. But it came from something real."
He paused.
"You felt something for me once," he said. "I know you did. And I know that doesn't disappear completely just because—"
"Stop," I said. "I think you are still lost in your delusions to think that I would listen to any of your nonsense."
He stopped.
"I stopped feeling anything for you the day you humiliated me in front of everyone," I said. "I stood in front of people and told you how I felt and you made sure I would never do something like that again without being afraid first. That was what you took from me." I kept my voice level. "Whatever was left after that died when you stabbed my father."
Brian didn't say anything.
"You didn't come back for me," I said. "You came back because you found out what I was. You wanted to own something powerful and you decided I was the most accessible option. That's not protection. That's just a different kind of hunting."
I sat down. Everywhere was quiet for a moment. The council head waited a moment and then continued the proceedings. The testimony was reviewed. The confirmation from additional sources was entered. Brian's connection to Richard, the operation he ran, the specific acts against Damien's pack and against me were all documented and read aloud into the formal record.
Brian didn't speak again after that. He sat there and his composure got less convincing as the hour went on but he kept trying to maintain it and I stopped watching him because he wasn't interesting to me anymore.
Richard didn't speak at all.
The deliberation was shorter than I expected. The evidence was not complicated. What they had done was not ambiguous. The council head delivered the ruling.
Brian and Richard were stripped of their titles, their pack affiliations, and their abilities. All of it. The ability removal was something I had heard existed but never seen. It was an old process, rarely used, requiring the combined authority of a full council. It was permanent. There was no version of this they came back from.
They were exiled as true rogues, powerless. Outside every pack structure permanently. I watched the warriors move to escort them out.
Brian walked past without looking at me. I didn't need him to.
Richard however got a much worse charge for killing all the lycans. He was sentenced to being locked permanently and tortured for over 50 years which he might not even made up to 10 years before he dies. He will be poisoned the same way he poisoned all of them and he would continue to be saved to suffer over and over again. .
That judgment was a little bit satisfied even though it wouldn't bring back all those people. But at least they got some closure.
I watched Damien's face. He didn't look at Richard. Damien looked more than annoyed like he wanted to kill him. He probably restrained himself because of me.
Alpha Orland didn't speak until the room had mostly cleared. Then he stood up slowly and looked at Damien.
"I owe you an apology," he said. "For more than I can address in one conversation. But I want to start."
Damien looked at him for a moment.
"Then start," he said.
He really had no patience and filter at all. I reached under the table and found Damien's hand. He turned his palm up and held mine without looking down.
"I'm formally apologizing for everything that my son and my brother did even though I knew nothing about it. I promise I will pay most of the damages they caused and would try my best to pay the rest of their sins."
At least he was honest enough not to defend his son. He was still my Father-in-Law anyway since my brother was still married to his family and he's still the alpha of our pack.