Chapter 5 Council Of Lies
KAEL POV
The silver shackles dissolved like mist the moment my skin made contact with them. Years of imprisonment fell away from her wrists, leaving behind raw, scarred flesh that made Fenris snarl with rage.
They tortured her, my wolf growled. Our mate has been tortured for twenty years.
I forced myself to remain calm as I examined the damage. The scars were deep, permanent marks left by prolonged silver contact. But underneath the damaged skin, I could see the faint shimmer of power beginning to return to her bloodline.
"How do you feel?" I asked softly.
She flexed her fingers experimentally, wondering crossing her features. "Different. Like something that was sleeping is starting to wake up."
"That's your wolf responding to freedom. It may take time for her to fully emerge; twenty years of suppression won't be undone in a night." I say.
She nodded, then looked around her destroyed cell as if seeing it for the first time. "What happens now?"
"Now we go upstairs. I need to deal with the remaining pack elders, and you need to be seen. The pack has to understand that you're under my protection."
Fear flickered in her eyes. "They'll try to stop you. The prophecy"
"What prophecy?" I kept my voice gentle despite the rage building in my chest. Every revelation about her treatment made me want to return upstairs and kill someone else.
"Elder Garrick said I was born during a lunar eclipse. That an ancient prophecy declared I would either save or damn all werewolf kind if I ever awakened my power." She touched her throat nervously. "He said keeping me powerless was the only way to protect the pack."
I closed my eyes for a moment, fighting for control. When I opened them again, my voice was deadly calm. "Lira, there is no such prophecy. The elders invented that story to justify keeping you captive."
"But why would they?" she asked, her voice wavering.
"Because Moonblood wolves are powerful enough to challenge alpha authority.” Inhaling deeply I continue “Your mother was the last Luna strong enough to stand as an equal partner rather than a subordinate. The elders feared what you might become."
Understanding dawned in her eyes, followed by a spark of anger that made Selwyn surface more strongly.
"They stole my life," she whispered. "My parents, my pack, my wolf, they stole everything from me."
"Yes. And now we're going to make sure they face justice for it." I stood and offered her my hand again. "Can you walk?"
She nodded and let me help her to her feet. Her legs shook from twenty years of confinement, but she stayed upright through sheer determination. I could smell her wolf growing stronger by the minute as her bloodline responded to freedom.
We made our way up the cellar stairs together, me staying close enough to catch her if she fell but giving her space to find her own strength. The other prisoners watched us pass in awed silence; they could sense the shift in power even if they didn't fully understand it.
The main hall was exactly as I had left it blood drying on the stone floor, pack members pressed against the walls in terrified submission. But when Lira appeared beside me, the entire atmosphere changed.
Every wolf in the room could smell her bloodline now that the silver suppression was gone. Moonblood. Ancient power. The scent that legends were made of.
"Impossible," someone whispered.
"She's supposed to be wolfless," another voice added.
My hand found the small of her back, offering support as dozens of eyes fixed on her with everything from awe to fear to naked greed. She trembled under the attention but didn't retreat.
"Pack members of Darkfang," I announced, my alpha voice carrying easily through the hall. "I present Lira Ashborne, last of the Moonblood line and my chosen mate."
The silence that followed was deafening. Then Elder John stepped forward from the group of survivors, his weathered face twisted with disbelief. "Alpha Kael, this is impossible. The girl is cursed. We've kept her contained for the safety of"
"You've kept her tortured for your own fear," I interrupted. "Twenty years of silver shackles. Twenty years of starvation and isolation. Twenty years of lies about prophecies that don't exist."
John's scent was thick with guilt, but he pressed on. "The prophecy is real. Her birth during the eclipse marked her as"
"Show me." My voice dropped to a dangerous whisper. "Show me these ancient texts that speak of a Moonblood curse. Produce the Moon Goddess scrolls that predict doom."
John's mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. Around the room, other elders avoided my gaze.
"You can't," I continued, "because they don't exist. You invented the prophecy to justify imprisoning a child whose only crime was being born with power you couldn't control."
"We did what we thought was best" John said but was interrupted.
"You did what was convenient. What allowed you to maintain your authority without challenge." I stepped forward, my alpha aura filling the room with oppressive force. "Where is Garrick?"
"Elder Garrick is indisposed," John stammered.
"Find him. Now." My voice boomed as it echoed throughout the room.
Several pack members scattered to search the building. Within minutes, they returned dragging a struggling figure Elder Garrick, trying to escape through a back exit with a travel pack over his shoulders.
I studied the man who had orchestrated twenty years of torture. Garrick was smaller than I remembered, more weathered, but his amber eyes still held the same calculating coldness that had marked him as dangerous even in my youth.
"Running away, Garrick?" I asked conversationally. "That seems unlike you. Usually, you prefer to face your problems by chaining them in cellars."
Garrick's gaze flicked to Lira, and she instinctively moved closer to my side. I noticed the movement and felt Fenris surge with protective fury.
"You don't understand what you've done," Garrick said, his voice still carrying traces of the authority he'd wielded for decades. "She's dangerous. The bloodline carries madness"
"The only madness here is what you've inflicted on an innocent woman." My claws extended slightly. "Tell me about the night she was born."
"I won't"
"Tell me." The command carried the full force of alpha authority.