Chapter 188 True Beta
ELIJAH
The elders arrived without being summoned, which was a thing they had always done and which I had always found irritating and which tonight I had no patience for whatsoever.
There were seven of them and they came into the throne room in the mid-morning with the combined energy of people who had been discussing something among themselves for long enough that they had built up momentum and were now here to release it.
I waited until they had arranged themselves before speaking.
“I imagine this is about Shawn,” If they noted my sarcasm, they didn’t acknowledge it.
“The Beta was dismissed without formal council process,” said Elder Maren. She was the most measured of them, which meant she was the one they had agreed would speak first. “This represents a departure from established procedure.”
“The Beta was dismissed because he buried reports of missing children from this pack for the better part of a year,” I said. “Because he turned grieving parents away from the palace gate on multiple occasions rather than escalate the matter. Because under his watch, thirty children from this pack were taken and held captive while their families received no support and no acknowledgment.” I paused. “If the council would like to discuss the procedure, we can do that. But we’re going to do it with all of that on the table.”
The room was quiet.
“Furthermore,” I wasn’t done yet. Saying it out loud to the people that recommended him in the first place, I could feel my anger start to resurface. “My son is among the children currently being held. Which means this is no longer a procedural matter. This is a declaration of war.”
That word landed the way it always landed in a room full of people who were not going to be the ones fighting it.
“War requires—” one of the older elders began.
“War requires my authorization as King,” I said. “Which I am giving. The soldiers will move at sunrise tomorrow.” I looked around the table. “I am informing you of this as a courtesy and because you deserve to know the state of your kingdom. I am not asking for your approval.”
Silence.
“Who is behind this?” Elder Maren asked.
“The Alpha of Golden Blade. A man named Landon.” I watched their faces for recognition. There was a slight shift in two of them. “You recognize the name.”
“We know of him,” Maren said carefully. “We were not aware he was the Alpha of Golden Blade. That information has been deliberately withheld from this kingdom.”
“Yes,” I said. “It has. Which is another conversation we’re going to have when my son is home.” I stood. “The meeting is concluded. Thank you for coming.”
They filed out with the varying degrees of grace that characterized everything they did — some of them troubled in a way that was genuine, some troubled in a way that was political, and a few who simply moved like men who understood that they were no longer in the room where decisions were being made and were adjusting to that reality.
Hazel appeared when they were gone.
“Aiden confirmed the location,” she said. “It matches what I thought. The old holding facility, northern boundary of Golden Blade territory, stone construction, significant guard presence around the perimeter but lighter inside.” She handed me the report. “He also confirmed a second access point on the eastern side that the current guards have not secured properly. Structural oversight from when the building was last used.”
I looked at the report.
“Leo would have found that,” I said.
“Almost certainly,” Hazel agreed.
“So when he says don’t come in loud,” I said, “he means the eastern side.”
“That’s my read.”
I set the report down.
“I need to establish communication with him,” I said. “Before we move. I need him to know the timeline so he can prepare the other children.”
“Adriana’s letter is going tonight,” Hazel said. “Landon will be distracted by it. That gives us a window.”
“Is there a reliable way in that doesn’t go through the main guard posts?”
She smiled in the particular way she smiled when she had already solved a problem and was waiting to be asked about it.
“Aiden has a contact inside the facility,” she said. “A guard who has been having significant doubts about his employment since a child was injured during transport last month. He’s been cooperating with Aiden’s people for two weeks.”
I looked at her.
“You’ve been running this since before you arrived,” I said.
“I’ve been running it since I heard what was happening,” she said. “I came here as soon as I had enough to be useful.”
I thought about Shawn. About eighteen months of reports that hadn’t moved, of a gate that had stayed closed, of children who had waited while the person in the position meant to protect them had decided the matter wasn’t worth his attention.
Hazel, who was recovering from an injury in a house somewhere outside the pack, ran what she could from a distance because she had not stopped being who she was just because she was not officially in the position anymore. That’s what a true Beta is made of.
“You’re reinstated,” I said. “Formally. With everything that entails.”
“I know,” she said. “I already told the senior guards.”
Of course she had.
“Eastern access point. Quiet, coordinated, and prepared for Leo to be moving from the inside when they arrive.”
“I’ll brief them tonight.”
“And the children — every single child in that facility comes home. That’s not secondary to anything else. That’s the mission.”
“Understood.”
I picked up the report and looked at the location marker Aiden had confirmed — a point on the northern border that I had passed within thirty kilometers of on the road to Golden Blade the day my son had been taken from me.
Landon had been that close.
He had been watching me move toward him and he had arranged to take Leo before I arrived, which meant he had known I was coming long before I left the palace, which brought me back to the information leak and the question of who had provided it. Shawn was the obvious answer and I believed it, but I was going to confirm it rather than assume it, because assuming was the kind of thinking that created the gaps Landon had been exploiting for a year.
“Find out how Landon knew my route,” I said.
“Already working on it,” Hazel said.
I stood up and moved toward the door.
“Adriana wants to come,” Hazel said.
I stopped.
“I know,” I said.
“Are you going to try to stop her?”
I turned and looked at Hazel with the expression that question deserved.
“No,” I said. “I’m going to make sure she has everything she needs.”
Hazel nodded.
“Good answer,” she said.