Chapter 17 The orphan crown
Emerald Pack —(Tasha’s father) Elder Thoren’s POV:
The council chamber had never felt this small.
The walls were carved from emerald-veined stone, etched with the history of our pack….victories, treaties, bloodlines traced back to the First Wolves. I had stood in this room hundreds of times as Alpha, as strategist, as judge. Tonight, I stood here as a father who did not know whether his daughter was still someone he was allowed to save.
The crown rested on the stone pedestal at the center of the chamber. Not mine. Never truly mine.
It had belonged to the most powerful wolfess among all packs.
And now… it had no rightful owner.
I stared at it longer than I should have.
“She lives,” Elder Mara said quietly, breaking the silence. “And the land knows it.”
That sent a ripple through the room.
The elders sat in a half circle…men and women who had watched me grow from a reckless young wolf into the Alpha of Emerald Pack. Kael sat to my right, his silver hair pulled back, his expression carved from stone. Rivan leaned against his chair, arms crossed, eyes sharp with unease. Mara, our healer, watched me like she was afraid I might fracture under the weight pressing down on my spine.
I exhaled slowly going towards the seat, not the one that was for the Queen wolfess, but the one right next to the elders on the table. “The land always knew Tasha was different.”
Mara nodded. “Yes. But now the land is… reacting.”
I clenched my jaw.
Since her resurrection, the wards along Emerald territory had trembled. The forest animals avoided certain paths. The moonlight itself felt heavier, brighter, as if something old had shifted back into place.
“She should not exist,” Rivan said, not cruelly, but honestly. “Not after what happened. Not after the way she died.”
My chest tightened.
The warehouse. The rogues. The screams I hadn’t heard, but imagined every night since.
“She is my daughter,” I said, my voice low but steady. “And she exists whether the world approves or not.”
Kael leaned forward. “Thoren, listen to me. This is not about approval. This is about balance. Resurrection is forbidden because it tears a hole in the natural order. Wolves are born. Wolves die. Even Alphas.”
“And demon hybrids?” I shot back.
The room stilled.
No one liked to say it aloud.
Tasha had never been fully one thing. Wolf blood from me. Something darker, a warlock from her mother’s line…an untamed power holder, a threat to the bloodlines, a truth we had buried, denied, protected her from.
Protected her too well, perhaps.
Mara spoke gently. “Her return was violent. That kind of power doesn’t come back quietly. Whatever brought her back changed her.”
I dragged a hand down my face. “You think I don’t know that?”
I could feel it. Even now.
A faint pull in my chest, like a thread stretched tight across miles of forest. My blood calling to hers. My wolf restless, pacing, growling softly beneath my skin.
She was alive.
And she was not safe.
“She killed a Snowpack spy,” Rivan said.
My head snapped up, shock struck me.“Confirmed?” I asked.
Kael nodded once. “Blood was found near the northern treeline. Torn flesh. Magic residue unlike anything we’ve recorded.”
Magic.
The word tasted bitter.
Emerald Pack ruled through strength and unity, not sorcery. Snowpack ruled through manipulation. Stoneclaw through brute force. We had survived because we were steady.
And now my daughter was a variable no one could predict.
“They sent a spy because they fear her,” I said.
“They sent a spy because they intended to kill her later,” Rivan corrected. “Observation first. Then attack.”
My hands curled into fists.
“She defended herself,” I said.
“Yes,” Mara agreed softly. “But in doing so, she announced herself to every pack that still believes power should be controlled…..or destroyed.”
Silence fell again.
I looked at the crown once more, getting up from my seat and going near the crown that belonged to no one for now.
“Tasha was meant to rule,” I said quietly. “Not because of ambition. Because the land answered to her.”
Kael’s gaze sharpened. “And now it answers louder.”
A bitter laugh escaped me. “She never wanted the crown.”
“She never had a choice,” Mara replied.
I turned away from the table, pacing toward the narrow windows carved into the stone. Outside, the forest stretched endlessly, moonlight silvering the leaves.
Somewhere out there, my daughter was alone.
Or worse…..learning to survive without us. I gulped the pain and regret down.
“She won’t come back easily,” I said. “Not after everything.”
Kael stood, walking to my side. “Then you must be ready for the possibility that she won’t come back at all.”
That felt like a blade to the ribs.
“I won’t hunt her,” I said immediately.
“No one is asking you to,” Rivan said. “But other packs will. Snowpack already has blood on its hands…its own. Stoneclaw won’t wait long once rumors spread.”
“And Alexandra?” I asked.
Kael’s mouth thinned. “She wears the crown now. By default.”
That made my wolf snarl.
Alexandra of Snowpack….cunning, ambitious, crowned not by destiny but by absence of my daughter. She knew Tasha had returned. She had seen her with Rhett once, long before the warehouse.
“She’ll see Tasha as a threat to her rule,” I said.
“She already does,” Mara replied.
I turned back to the council. “Then we prepare. Not to capture her. Not to chain her. But to protect our borders and buy time.”
Rivan frowned. “Time for what?”
I swallowed. “For her to decide who she wants to be.”
A murmur rippled through the room.
Kael studied me carefully. “You still believe she can choose.”
“I believe she must,” I said. “Or this ends in blood.”
Mara hesitated, then spoke. “There is… another concern.”
I stiffened. “Say it.”
“The resurrection,” she said. “Someone performed it. And no ordinary warlock could have done that.”
My breath slowed.
Kael’s eyes darkened. “Only one kind of being can see beyond the thread of death.”
“A Seer,” I whispered.
Rivan nodded. “And Snowpack has kept one under their control for years.”
Noah.
The name sat heavy in the air.
I closed my eyes briefly. “If he was involved…”
“Then he betrayed Snowpack,” Kael said. “And they will not forgive that.”
“And if he brought her back,” Mara added softly, “then he tied his fate to hers.”
I opened my eyes.
“Find him,” Kael continued. “Before they do.”
“And Tasha?” Rivan asked.
I looked out at the forest again, at the darkness where my daughter had vanished.
“She will come to us,” I said quietly. “Or she will burn every path that leads here trying not to.”
The council rose slowly, one by one, the weight of the future heavy on every shoulder.
As they filed out, Kael lingered.
“You’re afraid,” he said.
I didn’t deny it.
“She’s stronger than you now,” he continued. “Stronger than all of us.”
I nodded once. “That was always going to happen.”
Kael placed a hand on my shoulder. “Just make sure she remembers who taught her how to stand.”
When the chamber finally emptied, I stood alone with the crown.
I did not touch it.
Outside, the forest shifted, restless.
And somewhere beyond Emerald territory, my daughter was learning just how dangerous she could become.
And whether she would let it consume her. And the fear of the future made sure…that I won’t be able to sleep for one more night.