Chapter 190: The Thunder Is Not Amused

THUNDERFANG - BOLT COUNCIL HALL

There is a room in Thunderfang Keep that only opens when the continent has a problem, and right now, the continent had a problem.

Bolt Council Hall was that room. It was also the only room in Thunderfang where the Alpha was not the most powerful person present. Every hologram on the upper tier outranked him.

Alpha Thunderfang was in the hot seat, and everyone knew it.

"I have agreed to Starborne’s terms. He may have his daughter. Celeste Starborne will be returned to his custody. She is outlawed from setting foot on Thunderfang land ever again."

He announced it to the room. But everyone there in person was already aware of this decision because he had announced it this morning in the war room.

This announcement was for the holograms of every High Elder of Helix. They ringed the upper tier, projected in from wherever each of them governed, the ones who claimed impartiality to pack affiliation.

They were the same elders who had overseen the Moonfire. Not the proctors who ran the tests. These were the ones pulling the strings behind the scenes. The ones who decided every inter-pack matter on the continent. The ones every Alpha and pack Elder answered to.

Alpha Thunderfang sat flanked by his leadership on both sides. Behind him, his Captains and the Chief of Police. The High Luna sat among the Thunderfang Elders next to Freya and Dante.

This was a full house, ready to go to bat for their Alpha if needed. The only people missing were currently both resting in the Alpha’s chambers. One was recovering from a coma and the other had been unconscious since the Alpha marked her and was about to become the focal point of this meeting.

The Grand Chancellor’s hologram brightened a fraction, the system’s way of indicating the floor had shifted to the highest seat.

"The Starborne delegation is also demanding the return of her holo-band. They cite confidential material stored on it, pertaining to Starborne security protocols and personnel."

The chamber hummed like a kicked hornets’ nest.

"My answer remains no, Grand Chancellor," Alpha Thunderfang replied without hesitation. "That holo-band is evidence in an ongoing investigation into the murder of a Thunderfang pack member, an investigation the Starborne princess offered zero cooperation toward. She was wearing that omega’s clearance tag the night she was arrested, along with nine others that were not hers. She is fortunate to be walking out of here a free woman."

Thunderfang’s head elder, Matias, who also held a seat on the Helix Elders’ High Council, raised one hand. The chamber quieted.

"The Starborne delegation denies any involvement in the death of Carmen Vasquez, or in the attack on Thunderfang Keep, Alpha."

Alpha Thunderfang was deeply unimpressed by his own elder’s performance of impartiality, given that this same elder had sat in his war room and watched the hologram of Celeste scale the side of the Keep with his own eyes.

"Are we expecting them to confess to that and start a war?" Alpha Thunderfang said flatly. "There is zero doubt in my mind that Celeste Starborne was involved. It is against my better judgment that I return her at all. I am doing so on the advisement of the Thunderfang High Elders’ Council, and as a gesture of goodwill toward keeping peace between our packs."

A few of the Thunderfang elders were nodding along with this. None of the holograms so much as blinked.

He reached for his water. Drank. Set it down. The break had been for them, not for him.

"I would also remind this chamber that we have holo-footage of her entering my private chambers by scaling the wall of my Keep, going down a laundry chute, and ultimately entering into my chambers through an air duct carrying two syringes, one of which held a banned substance that, best case, would have fully paralyzed myself or the Crown Princess."

The chamber erupted into a buzz that Alpha Thunderfang talked through the way a man walks through rain.

"Furthermore, during her arrest, she openly threatened the Crown Princess of Thunderfang multiple times, in front of myself, my guards, and Captain Harlan."

Grand Chancellor Edwards inclined his head a fraction. "When those threats were made, the Starborne princess did not threaten royalty, nor a Thunderfang pack member, nor a member of any pack. Under the law, the Starborne Princess threatened a woman with no pack affiliation or protection. Under the law, she was property."

Holograms exchanged glances across the ringed tier. Whispers began to gather at the edges of the chamber.

Edwards raised one hand, and they died before they could take hold.

"Whether that distinction is right or wrong is not the matter before us," he continued, unhurried. "It is the legal argument the Starborne delegation presents in order to circumvent the charges. And it brings us to their final demand." He let his gaze travel the room. "The Starborne delegation demands the return of the woman formerly known as 7709, on the grounds that they no longer believe she is safe on Thunderfang soil."

Nobody at the Thunderfang bench moved. The not-moving was coordinated without being planned, the instinct of a pack that had just heard a threat aimed at one of its own and was holding formation until its Alpha decided the response.

Edwards kept going like the room’s reaction was irrelevant to his schedule.

"The delegation further objects to a former slave receiving any title whatsoever, arguing that to do so sets a precedent the other slave-holding packs cannot abide. They note that the Starborne crown prince received no mate at the Moonfire. They propose the woman be given to him as consort, to bear an heir, so that she is afforded protection and ceases to be a political pawn."

He paused, and when he resumed, it was to read directly.

"The Starborne Alpha has stated, on record, and I quote. ’She was raised alongside my daughter, under my wife’s roof, and I already regard her as a member of my family. My son may take a proper Luna should the council see fit. But the girl would be safer among the people who raised her.’"