Finally Found it 68

POV: Draven

I had been in enough council chambers to read the air before anyone opened their mouth. This one was wrong from the moment we entered.

The quiet was not the quiet of a room waiting for business. It was the quiet of a room that had already made up its mind.

Tobias stood at the center before we had taken our seats, a servant at his side carrying a covered tray with both hands.

He worked the silence the way he worked everything, as a performance. Then he pulled the cloth free with a flourish that cost him more dignity than he realized.

The relic underneath was charred and twisted, its surface carved with runes I recognized before he spoke. Not because I had used them. Because I had seen them deployed against packs before mine, by men exactly like him.

“This,” Tobias announced, rotating so every Alpha in the room tracked the artifact, “was found near the Crimson Fang border.”

He lifted it higher, his voice carrying the richness of a man who had rehearsed. “A fragment of forbidden magic — proof that dark forces linger within Draven’s pack.”

Gasps moved through the chamber in a wave. I watched the faces of every Alpha shift from neutral to suspicious in a single breath. I had seen mobs form more slowly.

I rose from my seat. “That’s a lie.” I kept my voice below a shout, because shouting was what Tobias wanted.

Controlled fury was harder to dismiss than rage. My eyes found his across the room and I held them. “Whatever you’ve brought here is fabricated. Another one of your pathetic attempts to weaken Crimson Fang.”

Tobias tilted his head, the portrait of injured dignity. “Fabricated? That’s a bold claim.”

He turned the artifact toward the room, easy and unhurried. “The council’s seers can confirm the authenticity of the markings. They align with ancient texts describing dark magic — magic we all swore to purge from our territories.”

The elder Alpha at the high table leaned forward. He was old enough to have watched three regimes collapse, and his gaze had the weight of a man who had stopped being surprised by most things.

His voice came with the gravity reserved for sentences that carry consequences. “Draven, this is not a matter to be dismissed lightly. If Tobias’s claims hold weight, your entire pack could face eradication.”

The word settled over the chamber and did not lift. Isla moved before I could.

She stepped forward, her voice carrying across the floor without strain. “And if Tobias’s claims are baseless? Will the council condemn an entire pack on nothing but suspicion and staged evidence?”

A younger Alpha to the right made a sound of contempt. “You expect us to believe you have nothing to do with this? You, whose bloodline is tied to the Moon Goddess herself? Powerful forces cling to power, and where there is power, there is corruption.”

Isla held her ground. She did not step back, and I noted it. “If we were corrupted, why would we be here? Why not use that so-called magic to destroy our enemies outright?”

The question landed and was held. Tobias let it sit for a beat, then moved closer to the council table, angling his body away from us and toward them, drawing the room with him.

“Desperation makes people clever, doesn’t it? Draven knows he’s losing control of his pack. Isla knows the council doubts her leadership. Perhaps they’ve turned to forbidden methods to maintain their power.”

I put both hands flat on the table and the sound cut through every conversation in the room.

“Enough.” I used the register that ended things, and the chamber stilled with the obedience of wolves who understood authority in their bodies before their minds caught up.

I let the silence hold for one breath. “Tobias wants you to believe his lies because he’s too weak to challenge me outright. Ask yourselves — what does he gain if you destroy Crimson Fang? And what does the region lose when you let his ambition go unchecked?”

The elder at the high table waited until I had finished, then straightened with the deliberateness of a man whose words cost more than most.

“If the artifact is proven authentic, the council will have no choice but to act. The eradication of Crimson Fang would be a tragedy, but we cannot allow dark magic to take root in the region.”

Isla stepped forward before anyone else could claim the space. “Then test it.” Her voice was sharp and direct, cutting across the stone floor without apology.

“Have your seers examine it. If it’s real, we’ll accept the consequences. But if it’s false, you’ll see Tobias for the liar he is.”

The chamber went still. Tobias held his smirk for two counts before it wavered, and in that waver I saw the one thing he had never intended to show: he had not expected her to make the offer.

He recovered fast, and I filed it away alongside everything else I knew about him.

“Very well,” the elder said, bringing the room back to order. “The artifact will be tested. But until we have answers, Crimson Fang is under scrutiny. One wrong move, and the council will not hesitate to act.”

The weight of the ultimatum settled over the chamber. Cold, indifferent to discomfort.

I looked at Isla. She looked back. Whatever passed between us in that moment needed no words, which was useful. We were in a room full of people reading our every reaction for weakness.

Tobias lowered himself back into his chair and let his voice drop to the register aimed only at us. “You won’t survive this, Draven.”

I held his stare long enough to make the point, then looked away. Not because he warranted an answer.

Because the room watching us warranted one, and the most effective reply to a man like Tobias was treating him as already settled.

Isla remained at my shoulder. Steady and grounded. The same quality she had carried on the ridge three days ago when she stood above that stronghold and did not flinch.

I had walked into this chamber with every calculation made, every angle mapped. What I had not accounted for was how much more solid those calculations held with her beside me.

The council moved into procedural order around us. Seers were summoned. The artifact passed from hand to hand across the high table.

Tobias watched me with the expression of a man who believed time was working in his favor.

He had been wrong about Isla from the beginning, and that error had cost him more than he understood yet. I intended to ensure he understood it in full before this was over.