Chapter 131 Hundred and thirty one

Chapter 131 Hundred and thirty one
Rowan's POV

A week into the verification process, Aldren requested an urgent meeting, his expression carrying none of the cautious optimism he'd shown when we first began.

"What did you find?" I asked, settling into the study alongside Julian and Marcus.

"Discrepancies," Aldren said, spreading several reports across the desk. "I sent trusted messengers to three of the packs Garrick claimed had joined willingly. Two accounts matched his description closely enough. The third did not."

"Which pack?" Julian asked.

"Thornfield. A small pack along Ironwood's eastern border." Aldren's jaw tightened. "According to their own Beta, who spoke with my messenger privately, their Alpha didn't choose alliance freely. Garrick's forces surrounded their territory for nearly two weeks, cutting off trade routes, before their Alpha finally agreed to terms simply to prevent his people from starving."

"That's coercion," Marcus said flatly. "Not the willing alliance he described to us."

"It matches exactly what we were worried about," I said, anger building steady beneath my composed exterior.

"There's more," Aldren continued. "The Beta mentioned this wasn't an isolated incident. He believes at least two other packs faced similar pressure, though he couldn't confirm specifics."

Julian's expression had hardened considerably. "He lied to us directly in this very room."

"Or he genuinely doesn't know the details of how his subordinates are executing his expansion," I said, though even as I said it, doubt colored my own voice.

"Do you actually believe that?" Marcus asked.

"No," I admitted. "But I want to give him the chance to explain before we assume the worst entirely."

"That's generous," Julian said, though not unkindly.

"It's strategic," I countered. "If we confront him with assumptions instead of confirmed facts, he has room to deny everything. If we confront him with Thornfield's testimony specifically, he has to actually respond to something concrete."

Aldren nodded slowly. "That's sound reasoning. I'd recommend sending formal notice requesting his presence again, referencing the discrepancy directly."

"Do it," Julian said. "Immediately."

The messenger returned within days carrying Garrick's response, agreeing to another audience, though something in the careful, measured language of his reply suggested he already understood exactly what awaited him.

He arrived four days later, his composed confidence from our first meeting notably diminished, replaced by something more guarded.

"Alpha Julian. Alpha Marcus. Luna Rowan." He inclined his head, though the gesture carried less easy confidence than before. "I understand you've discovered some discrepancies in what I described previously."

"Thornfield," I said directly, watching his reaction carefully. "Their Beta describes a very different circumstance than the willing alliance you claimed."

Garrick's jaw tightened slightly, though he didn't immediately deny it. "Thornfield's situation was... more complicated than I represented."

"Complicated how?" Julian pressed.

"Their Alpha had been mismanaging trade routes for months before our involvement," Garrick said carefully. "Cutting off access wasn't cruelty. It was leverage, forcing a necessary conversation he'd been avoiding for his own pack's benefit."

"That's still coercion," I said. "Regardless of whatever justification you're offering."

"Perhaps," Garrick admitted, something raw finally cracking through his careful composure. "I won't pretend every decision in this expansion has been purely diplomatic. Building something larger than individual packs requires difficult choices sometimes."

"Difficult choices that harm vulnerable people," Marcus said sharply.

"Difficult choices that ultimately strengthen the entire region," Garrick countered, though his voice lacked full conviction. "Thornfield is safer now, better resourced, more protected against genuine threats than they were as an isolated, struggling pack."

"That's not your decision to make for them," I said. "Not through coercion."

Garrick was quiet for a long moment, something conflicted moving behind his dark eyes. "You're right," he said finally, surprising all of us. "I've justified methods I know aren't entirely honorable, telling myself the outcome justifies whatever pressure I've applied to reach it."

"Why?" Julian asked. "What's actually driving this expansion, beyond simple ambition?"

Garrick hesitated, something old and painful flickering across his expression. "That's a longer conversation than I'm prepared to have today."

"We deserve an honest answer," I said. "If we're going to trust anything you say going forward."

He studied me for a long moment, weighing something carefully. "Very well. Three years ago, my mate was killed. A rogue attack, isolated, nothing anyone could have fully prevented. But it taught me something about vulnerability, about how quickly isolated strength can be overcome by threats larger than any single pack can withstand alone."

"So you're building alliance through force," I said slowly, "because you're afraid of facing another loss you couldn't prevent."

"Something like that," Garrick admitted, something raw and exposed in his voice now. "I've told myself it's strategic necessity. Perhaps it's simply grief I've never properly processed, exactly as you suggested weeks ago, Luna Rowan."

The room fell quiet, the weight of that admission settling heavy over all of us.

"Grief doesn't excuse coercion," I said gently, though firmly. "But I understand it better now."

"What do you want from us?" Julian asked. "Given everything you've just admitted."

Garrick considered the question carefully. "Guidance, perhaps. I've been building strength through fear, both my own and the fear I'm inflicting on others. I watched you, Luna Rowan, build something different. Genuine alliance, genuine loyalty, forged through actual partnership rather than coercion."

"You want to learn how to do this differently?" Marcus said, understanding dawning in his voice.

"Perhaps," Garrick admitted. "If Crescent Moon would be willing to advise, rather than simply condemn."

I exchanged glances with Julian and Marcus, weighing the unexpected turn carefully. "We're willing to try," I said finally. "But this requires real change, not simply better diplomatic language covering the same coercive methods."

"I understand," Garrick said. "I'm prepared to release Thornfield from their current terms, allow them to choose freely whether continued alliance still serves them, once fear isn't dictating their decision."

"That's a meaningful first step," Julian said, though caution remained evident in his voice.

"I intend to take more," Garrick said. "If you're willing to help guide the process."

We spent the remainder of the afternoon discussing specific terms, careful frameworks for genuine alliance rather than coerced submission, and by the time Garrick's party finally departed, something had shifted in the tentative relationship between our packs, cautious but genuinely hopeful.

"What do you think?" Marcus asked, once we'd returned inside.

"I think grief makes people do desperate things," I said slowly. "I understand that better than most. But I also think he's genuinely willing to change, given the right guidance instead of simple condemnation."

"Cautiously optimistic," Julian said, echoing sentiments from weeks earlier.

"Cautiously optimistic," I agreed, though something in my chest, weary from months of constant vigilance, allowed itself, just slightly, to hope that this particular challenge might resolve into partnership rather than conflict.