Chapter 698: The Alpha King Is Otherwise Occupied

"What is Drakenfell’s status, Master Mage Lancaster?" Serena asked, with a voice level enough to walk across.

She used Aeron’s formal title around the Elders because they tended to be more open to things when structure and formalities were followed. She had figured that out day one on the throne here and had been following it ever since.

Aeron straightened from the wall. The straightening carried the weight of a man about to deliver information he wished he could edit and was choosing to deliver whole.

"My last contact was three hours ago through Hyran Thornfell. Drakenfell also engaged with a fleet of corrupted dragons. They were also hit with red death but already had a protection enchantment engaged from a few months ago, so the arrows were blocked automatically." He paused and looked at the room. "Alpha Shadowclaw and I were at that siege months ago. Off the record, the Dark Fae apparently don’t communicate because they did the exact same thing back then and got the exact same result."

The elders visibly tensed when Aeron said ’off the record’ and Serena fought the urge to smile.

She agreed with him. Launching the exact same attack strategy against a kingdom that had already beaten it was weapons-grade stupidity, and Shadowclaw was going to ride that incompetence for every goddamn advantage it was worth.

"That may work in our favor in the future. The enchantment is up around Shadowclaw now," she stated with a straight face.

"It does," Aeron agreed. "Let’s hope they continue to be dumb." His face grew more serious. "I do not have a report of casualties, Luna. Hyran’s communication was interrupted before he could provide numbers."

Casualties.

The word sat in Serena’s chest like a stone dropped into still water. The ripples were invisible. Her face gave the room nothing. Her eyes gave the room nothing. Whatever the word did to her insides, and the word did plenty, it was processed and stored behind a composure that had been holding worse things for longer than anyone at this table knew.

"Thank you, Master Mage."

Gamma Knox gave a nod. "That leads us to the next item on our agenda. Skardos’s emergency war council has been called. Joint request from Bloodmoon, Darkhowler, and Blackvein. I’d imagine that will grow. All packs are being summoned."

The sentence converted the war room from a post-battle debrief into a decision chamber. The air pressure changed. Thirty faces shifted from receiving information to weighing options, the transition visible in the way postures straightened and eyes narrowed and hands found table edges.

Elder Callum spoke first.

"Our Alpha is in a coma."

Everyone at the table stiffened, including Serena, at the same goddamn moment, like the sentence had reached into the room and yanked every spine straight. He had just said aloud the thing that every person present had been carrying in silence for days.

Elder Callum looked at the room. Thirty faces. His gaze was flat, direct, carrying the unapologetic candor of a man whose age had earned him the right to say things that younger men would pad with qualifiers.

"Every person in this room is aware of the Alpha’s condition. There’s no point in pretending like we aren’t. Every person in this room has chosen silence, and that silence has been honorable and necessary and is now operating on borrowed time. But sending our beloved but still uncrowned Luna Queen to a war council where every Alpha in Skardos is in attendance is not the right move. That would be a red flag. The Alphas at that table will ask one question before she sits down: where is Alpha Shadowclaw? And every answer we provide that is not ’he is here’ confirms what we cannot afford to confirm. I recommend Shadowclaw does not attend. We blame it on the siege we underwent last night and push it back another week until Alpha Shadowclaw is recovered."

Serena agreed with that statement. Elder Callum had a valid point.

Elder Voss leaned forward, hands flat on the table. His disagreement was already constructed, and the construction was load-bearing. Serena could feel it from where she sat.

"Not attending is a larger red flag, Elder Callum. Seven kingdoms were attacked. A joint war council has been called. There is no pushing it back. If Shadowclaw, the largest pack in Skardos and the pack that was hit the hardest, does not send a representative, every Alpha at that table will conclude one of two things. Either our Alpha is dead, or our Alpha is too weak to attend. Both conclusions produce the same result: Shadowclaw becomes a target rather than an ally. We need information from that council and we need presence at that table. The Luna Queen goes."

Elder Williams, seated between both men, shook his head.

"We send the Beta." His voice was steady, pragmatically weighted. He was splitting the difference, and the difference was worth splitting. "Beta Sharpe carries the authority to represent the Alpha in his absence. That is standard protocol across every pack on the continent. The Beta attends. The Gamma accompanies. The Alpha’s absence is explained by operational demands in the aftermath of a siege, which is both plausible and true. No red flags. No questions we cannot answer."

The arguments were sound. All three. Each one built on logic that held under scrutiny and each one arriving at a different destination.

Aeron spoke from the wall.

"With respect to Elder Williams’s proposal, sending the Beta would also raise questions. Shadowclaw pack law states that in the absence of the Alpha King, representation falls to the crowned Luna or Queen. Sending our Queen is protocol. Sending our Beta is an exception that invites scrutiny. I recommend we follow the law."

Elder Williams received the correction with a single nod. "I understand the law, Master Mage. The grey area stems from the fact that she is our future Luna Queen and has not been crowned by the Alpha yet." He paused. "Keyword there was yet, Luna."

The table chuckled, including Serena.

The elder had thrown her own damn word back at her and he earned that laugh.

Every head at the table turned to Beta Sharpe.