Chapter 27

Chapter 27
Pack Divided
Alice

The council hall was colder than I remembered. Or maybe it was just the air—thick with judgment, with eyes that felt like knives pressed against my skin. Every seat in the chamber was full. The elders sat in a half-circle, their faces worn and carved by time, some curious, most cautious.

Behind them, a mix of pack members—warriors, scouts, betas, even kitchen hands—lined the walls. Everyone had come to see the spectacle. Me.I stood in the center of it all, my hands clenched at my sides, my heart a traitor beating far too loud in my chest. Clara stood behind me to the right, Liam just beside her. Darius lingered near the entrance, arms folded, expression dark and unreadable.

And Kael—he stood on the other side of the room, closer to the elders, like he belonged there more than he belonged next to me.He didn't look at me.I didn’t blame him. He was trying to act all alpha in front of his pack. Somehow it was a turn on for me.“State your concern, Elder Nolan,” someone finally said.

Nolan rose from his seat. Tall, sharp, and the color of old stone. “Alice is a threat to the pack,” he said, calm like he was discussing the weather. “She’s unpredictable, unstable. She entered our territory like a rogue, and now she burns with power no one understands.”A murmur swept through the room. I felt it under my skin like electricity.Clara stepped forward. “That’s not true. She’s fought for our people—more than once. If it weren’t for her, we wouldn’t have survived the ambush last week.”

“And let’s not forget the scout who tried to kill her,” Liam added, jaw tight. “She’s being hunted. We protect our own, don’t we?”

Elder Nolan didn’t so much as blink. “We don’t even know what she is. She nearly blew up the interrogation room just by touching someone. That’s not power. That’s chaos.”“I didn’t mean to,” I said quietly.

He ignored me.

“She’s bonded to something ancient. Maybe even divine. That doesn’t make her a gift—it makes her dangerous.”“I said,” I repeated, louder this time, “I didn’t mean to.”The silence after that was worse than the accusations. My voice sounded too thin. Too human.

Then someone else stood. “I say we keep her under lock and key,” Eric said, voice oily with smug satisfaction. I recognized him immediately. His sneer hadn’t changed. “Restrain her before she brings hell on all of us.”Kara chimed in beside him, arms crossed over her chest like a teenage mean girl playing politics. “Let’s not act like she hasn’t been trouble since day one. Who even is she really?”

“I’m standing right here,” I snapped.

“You think that means something?” Kara said. “You're still an outsider. And now you’re a loaded weapon too?”I took a step forward, blood rushing in my ears. “You don’t know what I’ve been through. What I’ve lost.”“No, but we will if you lose control again.”

My hands trembled. I felt it rising—the power that curled behind my ribs, heavy and hot, like a storm building under my skin. My fingers itched, and the room blurred slightly at the edges.Trent stood up. “That’s enough.”

The room stilled.Even Kara’s mouth clicked shut.Trent had never spoken for me before. Never even looked at me twice.“She’s not the threat,” he said. “We are—if we force her into a corner she can’t crawl out of.”His voice wasn’t kind. It wasn’t emotional. It was a soldier’s voice. Cold. Factual. And it carried weight.

“I’ve seen the way she fights. I’ve seen her hold back. That’s more than I can say for half the wolves in this room.”Eric opened his mouth again, but Clara stepped in front of me.“Enough,” she said, her voice like a whip. “We all saw what happened in the woods. We saw her protect our young. Our warriors. She's not the enemy.”

I couldn't breathe. My skin tingled. The weight of too many stares pressed in.I didn’t want to do this.But I had to.

“I’m not going to sit here and defend myself while you throw stones like cowards,” I said, my voice shaking at first, then steady. “You want to see what I am?”Kael finally looked up.Darius straightened.

I let go.

The power surged through me like an open dam. A low rumble cracked beneath our feet—stone groaning, the wood of the rafters above creaking as if something massive passed overhead. The torches on the wall flickered. Wind whipped through the sealed room.

Some people gasped. Others backed away.I didn’t move. I didn’t speak.

I just let them feel it.Then I reeled it back in.The room went still.Dead still.“I didn’t ask for this,” I said. “But I won’t hide anymore. You want me exiled? Fine. You want me restrained? Try it. But don’t expect me to bow.”

Kael stepped forward.So did Darius.Both of them reached out to me.Two hands. Two paths.I looked at them both—one dark, steady and eternal. The other wild, unpredictable and burning.And I stepped back.“I don’t need either of you to prove I belong here,” I said. “Not anymore.”Kael’s hand curled into a fist. Darius’s dropped to his side. Neither said a word.I turned back to the elders, my heart thudding in my chest like a drumbeat before war. “What now?” I asked.But before anyone could answer, the double doors creaked open at the back of the hall.A runner stumbled in, out of breath, holding a folded slip of paper in his shaking hands.

He handed it to Clara, who read it, her eyes scanning fast.Then she looked at me.“What is it?” I asked.Clara hesitated. Her throat bobbed as she swallowed.“It’s your mother,” she said.My stomach dropped.

“She wants to meet you.”I blinked. “What?”“She said… alone.”And just like that, everything else—the room, the council, Kael, Darius, all of it—fell away.Because my mother had been dead for ten years.I couldn't believe what I was hearing,my jaw dropped as the news rang countless on my head.