DEREK
The Alpha Council chambers in Solmire were colder than I remembered.
I'd been here twice before—once when I was confirmed as Alpha at twenty-three, and once three years ago for a territorial dispute that nearly started a war. Both times, I'd walked in confident, untouchable, certain of my place in the world.
Today, I walked in knowing I'd been complicit in everything we were about to judge.
Cassandra Laurent sat in the defendant's chair with perfect posture and a calm expression. She wore a tailored black suit, her hair swept back, and she looked like she was attending a board meeting rather than a trial that would determine whether she'd spend the rest of her life as a rogue.
Her co-conspirator wouldn't be joining her. Logan had been found dead at the edge of the Blightwood six
