carried across 78

 

78 Meeting Is Adjourned 

Sera 

Yvara marched me forward Fenris fell into step right behind us. His presence was a massive, looming shadow at my back 

We walked out of the warm, humid garden and back into the freezing stone corridors of the fortress. We moved fast. Nobody spoke. 

We reached a set of heavy wooden double doors on the second level. Two guards stood outside. They took one look at Fenris’s murderous expression and immediately stepped aside, pulling the heavy iron rings and throwing the doors wide open. 

Fenris walked into the room. Yvara and I followed right behind him. 

The council chamber was a circular room with a large, round wooden table in the center. Five older men sat around it. 

The shock on their faces was immediate and absolute. Conversations stopped dead. Chief Vane dropped his iron cup. It hit the wood with a loud clatter. They had not invited the Alpha. 

Fenris smiled. It was a terrifying, cold baring of his teeth. 

“Why is a council meeting holding without my presence?” Fenris asked. His voice was dangerously quiet. 

I looked at the table. Kael was sitting in the high-backed wooden chair at the exact head of the room. The Alpha’s seat. 

Fenris didn’t pause. He walked straight toward Kael. 

The other elders looked at each other, panic flashing in their eyes. Then, their faces soured completely as they noticed me standing behind Fenris. 

“What is the Southern Princess doing here?” Kael demanded, standing up quickly from the chair. His face turned a splotchy, angry red. “She is not supposed to be in this chamber.” 

“Neither was I,” Fenris responded sharply. He stopped two feet away from Kael. “But here I am.” 

Fenris reached out, grabbed the heavy wooden chair to the right of the head seat, and pulled it back. He looked at me and pointed at the leather cushion. 

I swallowed hard. I walked forward and sat down. My hands were shaking. I pressed them flat against my thighs to hide the tremor. This was entirely different from standing trial for punching Taya. Right now, I was actually sitting directly in the middle of their secret council. 

Kael immediately vacated the head seat. He realized the optics of sitting there while the Alpha stood over him. He stepped to the side, his eyes boiling with hatred as he glared down at me. He walked around the table and took an empty stool on the far side. 

1/4 

+25 Bonus 

The effrontery for him to actually take the head seat in the first place was staggering He was openly trying to lead a coup. 

Fenris sat down in the Alpha’s chair. He leaned back, spreading his broad shoulders, completely dominating the space. 

“She has no place here, Alpha,” Chief Vane spoke up. His scarred face was tight with disapproval. He pointed a thick finger at me. “Having a southern outsider sit in our council is a direct slap to our faces We discuss Ironmaw blood here.” 

“And holding a closed meeting without informing your Alpha is treason,” Fenris shot back instantly. He leaned his forearms on the table. He smiled at them again. “Are you plotting against me, Vane?” 

The denial was instantaneous and chaotic. 

“No, Alpha.” 

“We were merely discussing the hunting yields.” 

“Never, Alpha.” 

Kael shook his head rapidly. “It was just a preliminary discussion, Fenris. Nothing official.” 

I looked around the table. I saw the sweat beading on Kael’s forehead. I saw the way Vane’s hands gripped the edge of the wood. I saw the absolute fear in their eyes. 

It was exactly what it looked like. I remembered a specific night in Blackwater. Kane’s chiefs had cornered him in a similar room. They had been careless, whispering their plans in the hallways. I had mediated the dispute and diffused the tension behind Kane’s back, saving his life without him ever knowing. I knew the signs of a coup. I was looking at one right now. 

“Let me make something entirely clear,” Fenris said, cutting through their panicked excuses. His voice grew louder, filling the stone room. “The wedding is happening on the next full moon. Five days from 

now.” 

The elders shifted uncomfortably in their seats. 

“If you are angry that a Southern Princess is sitting at this table, you only have to wait five days,” Fenris continued, his tone turning violent. “In five days, she will officially be Ironmaw. And you can all shut your 

mouths about it.” 

The room went completely silent. 

Fenris wasn’t finished. The anger he had been suppressing since the garden boiled over entirely. He leaned forward, his grey eyes locking onto Chief Vane. 

“For months, you have held me back,” Fenris said, his voice dropping into a lethal, vibrating growl. “For months, you have sat in these rooms and told me to wait. You told me not to cross the Eastern ridge. You told me to ignore my brother’s death.” 

2,4 

Vane cleared his throat nervously. “Alpha, we…” 

+25 Bonus 

“Instead of finding a way to fix the complication, you are in here holding secret meetings!” Fenris roared. 

Vane raised his hands defensively. “It only makes sense that we avoid that eastern mountain, Alpha. Half the men who survived that ambush haven’t fully recovered. We lost good warriors. We need to understand exactly what happened there. We need to know their true strength before we approach the 

border again.” 

Fenris slammed his fist down onto the table. 

The impact sounded like a boulder hitting the floor in the enclosed room. The thick wood cracked violently down the center. 

I flinched hard, my shoulders jerking up to my ears. 

“Are you asking me not to avenge my brother?” Fenris shouted. He stood up, kicking his chair back. Have you become so cowardly that you will not do the right thing? My brother’s blood is frozen in the dirt, and you want to sit here and talk about recovery!” 

“Alpha, please,” Kael started. 

“Shut up!” Fenris snapped, pointing a lethal finger directly at Kael’s face. “Do not speak to me.” 

The tension in the room was at an absolute breaking point. Fenris looked ready to vault across the table 

and tear Kael’s throat out. 

I moved purely on instinct. 

I reached out under the table. I placed my bare hand flat against Fenris’s thick thigh. 

2 

The muscle beneath the dark wool was completely rigid, coiled like a loaded spring. I pressed my palm down firmly. I didn’t say a word. I just anchored my hand there, offering a grounding weight. 

Fenris stopped yelling. He froze. 

He slowly looked down at me. His chest heaved with violent, ragged breaths. He looked at my hand resting on his leg. He looked up at my face. 

He closed his eyes. He took a slow, jagged breath in through his nose, forcing the air deep into his lungs. He exhaled sharply. He opened his eyes, the violent black anger fading back to pale grey. 

He looked back up at the terrified elders sitting around the cracked table. 

“This meeting is adjourned,” Fenris stated coldly. 

3.4 

+25 Bonus