Chapter 96 The Witness
The mercenary’s name was Jacob Miller.
He was thirty-two years old. A wolf who had worked as hired muscle for various Alphas over the past decade. Not a good person by any measure, but not completely evil either. Just someone who took jobs for money and tried not to think too hard about the consequences.
Until the Traditional Council hired him to burn down a safe house with omegas still inside.
“I thought it would be empty,” Jacob said, sitting in a secure room deep inside Northern Kingdom territory. “They said it was just a building. Just property. Burn it and leave. Easy money.”
“But it was not empty,” young Sera said quietly.
“No. There were three omegas inside. Young girls. Maybe fifteen, sixteen years old. I heard them screaming when the fire started. Heard them trying to get out.”
Young Sera felt sick. “Did they survive?”
“I do not know. I ran. Could not handle watching them burn. Could not live with that on my conscience. So I came to you. Figured if I was going to hell anyway, at least I could do one good thing first.”
Jacob looked at young Sera with haunted eyes. “I am a bad person. I have done terrible things. But burning children alive? That is where I draw the line. That is too much even for me.”
“Who hired you?” Kael asked. “Give us names. Proof. Everything you have.”
“Alpha Marcus Vane. He coordinates operations for the Traditional Council. He hired me and five other mercenaries. Gave us locations. Told us to make sure the safe houses were completely destroyed. Paid half up front, half after completion.”
Jacob pulled documents from his jacket. Contracts. Payment receipts. Communications with Marcus Vane. Everything carefully documented because Jacob was smart enough to know he might need leverage someday.
“This is gold,” Lyra said, reviewing the documents. “This directly connects Traditional Council to arson and attempted murder. This could destroy them.”
“If I testify,” Jacob said. “If I survive long enough to testify. Marcus Vane has already sent people looking for me. He knows I did not complete the job. He knows I might talk. I am a dead man unless you protect me.”
“We will protect you,” young Sera promised. “We will move you somewhere safe. Give you a new identity. Keep you alive until the Council hearing. You have my word.”
“The word of a Luna Queen who has been kidnapped three times in two years,” Jacob said dryly. “Forgive me if that does not inspire complete confidence.”
“Then trust this,” Kael said coldly. “If you betray us, if you run back to the Traditional Council, if you lie or fabricate evidence, I will hunt you to the ends of the earth and kill you myself. My word on that is absolute. Do we understand each other?”
Jacob nodded quickly. “Understood. I give you the truth. You keep me alive. Fair trade.”
They moved Jacob that same night. Secretly. Only five people knew the location. Kael, Lyra, Garrett, young Sera, and one trusted warrior who would guard Jacob personally.
The safe location was a cabin in the mountains. Remote. Defensible. No road access. Anyone trying to reach it would be seen miles away.
“You stay here until the Council hearing,” Lyra told Jacob. “You do not leave. You do not contact anyone. You do not exist until we need you. Clear?”
“Crystal clear.”
“Good. Because if the Traditional Council finds you, they will not just kill you. They will torture you first to find out what you told us. Then they will kill everyone you ever cared about. Then they will burn this cabin with you in it. This is life or death. Act like it.”
Jacob looked appropriately terrified. Good. Fear would keep him careful.
Young Sera returned to the Northern Kingdom and immediately called a meeting with Diana and the network leadership.
“We need to know about those three omegas,” young Sera said. “The ones who were in the safe house when Jacob started the fire. Did they survive?”
Diana checked her records. Her face fell. “Two survived with severe burns. The third died. Her name was Rebecca. She was sixteen years old. She had escaped from her father who was selling her to an Alpha three times her age.”
Young Sera felt grief and rage war inside her. Rebecca was dead. A sixteen-year-old girl who had done nothing wrong except seek protection. Dead because the Traditional Council wanted to hurt young Sera.
“We are going to make them pay,” young Sera said. “For Rebecca. For every omega they hurt. For every safe house they burned. We are going to destroy them.”
“How?” Diana asked. “The Traditional Council is powerful. Connected. They have money and influence. How do we actually beat them?”
“We demand a formal Council hearing. We present Jacob’s testimony and evidence. We force the Council to choose between protecting traditional Alphas or upholding the omega rights reforms they already passed. We make this public. Make it impossible for them to ignore.”
“What if the Council sides with the Traditional Council? What if they decide omega rights are less important than maintaining Alpha power?”
“Then we have bigger problems. But I do not think they will. We have allies on the Council. Maria Santos. David Chen. Katherine Williams. Marcus Stone. They will not abandon the reforms they voted for.”
“And the other Council members?”
“We convince them. We show them that the Traditional Council is not defending tradition. They are defending violence against children. Against innocents. We make the choice clear. Support omega rights or support child killers. Most Alphas will choose the former.”
Diana looked skeptical but hopeful. “When is the hearing?”
“We demand it for two weeks from now. That gives us time to prepare. Time to gather more evidence. Time to make sure Jacob stays safe and alive.”
“Two weeks is not much time.”
“Two weeks is all we have. The Traditional Council gave us a thirty-day deadline to surrender. We have about ten days left. We use that deadline. We turn it against them. We show the Council that we are not surrendering. We are fighting back.”
Over the next week, young Sera worked constantly. Gathering evidence. Coordinating with Council allies. Preparing testimony. Building a case that could not be ignored.
She also met with the two surviving omegas from the burned safe house. Their names were Clara and Emma. Both had severe burns across their arms and faces. Both would have scars for life.
“Tell me what happened,” young Sera said gently, sitting beside Clara’s hospital bed.
“We were sleeping,” Clara said, her voice rough from smoke damage. “It was late. Maybe two in the morning. Suddenly there was fire everywhere. The whole building was burning. We tried to get out but the doors were blocked. Someone had chained them from the outside.”
“Rebecca was in the back room,” Emma added, tears streaming down her burned face. “She could not get past the flames. We heard her screaming. Heard her calling for help. But we could not reach her. We barely escaped ourselves.”
“I am so sorry,” young Sera said. “This should never have happened. You were supposed to be safe. Protected. I failed you.”
“You did not fail us,” Clara said firmly. “The monsters who did this failed us. You gave us hope. Gave us a chance. That is more than we had before.”
“But Rebecca is dead.”
“Rebecca died because evil people exist. Not because you tried to help. Do not let them make you feel guilty for fighting for us.”
Young Sera wished she could believe that. But guilt was a heavy weight. Rebecca’s death was not directly young Sera’s fault, but it happened because young Sera built a network that threatened traditional Alphas. Cause and effect. Action and consequence.
“Will you testify at the Council hearing?” young Sera asked. “Will you tell them what happened?”
Both girls nodded. “We will testify. We will make sure everyone knows what the Traditional Council did. Rebecca deserves justice. We all do.”
Nine days before the thirty-day deadline, young Sera formally requested a Council hearing. She sent official letters to all twelve Council members. Laid out the charges. Provided preliminary evidence.
The response came within twenty-four hours. From Marcus Stone, the Head Council member.
“Luna Queen Sera, your request for a hearing regarding the Traditional Council is granted. The hearing will take place in seven days at neutral Council grounds. All parties will have the opportunity to present evidence and testimony. This is a serious matter and will be treated with appropriate gravity. Prepare accordingly. - Marcus Stone”
Seven days. Young Sera had seven days to prepare the most important case of her life. Seven days to gather every piece of evidence. Seven days to convince the Council to take action against some of the most powerful Alphas in werewolf society.
“We are ready,” Kael said during a strategy meeting. “We have Jacob’s testimony. We have documents proving payment from Marcus Vane. We have testimony from Clara and Emma. We have photos of burned safe houses. We have a dead sixteen-year-old omega. The evidence is overwhelming.”
“Evidence is not enough,” Lyra warned. “We also need to control the narrative. The Traditional Council will spin this as defensive action against radical reforms. As protecting pack culture from dangerous change. We need to counter that narrative before they establish it.”
“How?” young Sera asked.
“We go public before the hearing. We release information to pack news networks. We tell Rebecca’s story. We show photos of burned safe houses and injured omegas. We create public outrage that the Council cannot ignore. We make this trial by public opinion before it is even trial by Council vote.”
“That is risky,” Garrett said. “If we go public and fail to get convictions, we look weak. The Traditional Council looks strong. We might make things worse.”
“And if we do nothing, the Traditional Council controls the narrative. They paint us as extremists. Paint themselves as defenders of tradition. We lose before we even start.”
Young Sera made the decision. “We go public. Tomorrow. We release everything. We make this the biggest story in werewolf society. We force everyone to pick a side.”
The next day, news of the Traditional Council’s crimes spread across every pack territory. Photos of Rebecca’s burned body. Testimony from Clara and Emma. Documents proving Marcus Vane hired mercenaries to kill omegas.
The reaction was immediate and explosive. Some Alphas defended the Traditional Council. Claimed the evidence was fabricated. Claimed young Sera was manipulating people.
But most reacted with horror. A sixteen-year-old omega burned alive. Safe houses destroyed. Children targeted. Even Alphas who opposed omega rights reforms drew the line at killing children.
Public opinion turned sharply against the Traditional Council. They tried to fight back. Released their own statements. Claimed the fire was an accident. Claimed Rebecca’s death was tragic but not their fault.
But the evidence was too strong. Jacob’s testimony too detailed. The public did not believe their denials.
Three days before the hearing, the Traditional Council sent young Sera another message.
“You have made a grave mistake. Going public was an act of war. We will not forget this. Regardless of what happens at the Council hearing, you have signed your own death warrant. We will hunt you. We will kill everyone you love. We will destroy everything you built. This is your last chance to surrender. Take it. Or face consequences beyond your imagination. - The Traditional Council”
Young Sera read the message and felt cold certainty settle over her. There was no surrender. No compromise. No middle ground. Either she destroyed the Traditional Council or they destroyed her.
Only one of them would survive this war. And young Sera intended to make sure it was her.
“Let them come,” young Sera said to Kael. “Let them threaten. Let them plan. In four days, we expose them before the entire Council. We get them convicted. We strip them of their power. And we make sure they can never hurt another omega again.”
“And if we fail?”
“We do not fail. Failure is not an option. Rebecca died because of them. Clara and Emma will carry scars forever because of them. Dozens of omegas live in fear because of them. We owe it to every single one of them to win. So we win. No matter what it takes.”
Kael nodded. “Then we win. Together. Like we have won every other impossible battle.”
Three days until the Council hearing. Three days to prepare. Three days until young Sera faced the biggest threat she had ever encountered.
She was scared. Terrified actually. But she was also ready. Ready to fight. Ready to win. Ready to prove that omega rights were worth defending no matter the cost.
The Traditional Council thought they could intimidate her into surrender. They thought fear would break her. They thought she was just a girl playing at being Luna Queen.
They were about to learn how wrong they were. About to face the full power of a Luna Queen who had survived three kidnappings, killed a dangerous Alpha in combat, and built an omega protection network from nothing.
Young Sera was done being the victim. Done being the target. Done letting powerful Alphas dictate her life.
Now she was the hunter. And the Traditional Council was her prey.
Three days. Then justice. Then victory. Then peace, finally.
Or so she hoped.