Tronel’s face tightened, but he quickly masked the emotion, replacing it with a carefully crafted grief. “My daughter has been kept from public knowledge for her safety, Your Highness,” he explained, his tone lined with a fatherly concern that seemed almost believable.
“She is unshifted, young, and vulnerable, a precious legacy of my late mate. And now she’s been taken, stolen from me ...” His voice faltered, thickening with feigned anguish. “I demand that she be returned to me and that the culprits face justice.”
Council members murmured among themselves, exchanging whispers that hinted at doubt as much as sympathy. They glanced at each other, sensing that there was more to this story, but unable to outright challenge Tronel without cause.
Azriel, feeling Markus’s calm aura, held his
