Scott stood frozen in the corner of the hall, his mind struggling to catch up with what he’d just heard. His father wasn’t his father. The man who’d raised him, taught him to fight, stood behind him at every pack gathering since he was a boy, wasn’t his blood at all.
"How is any of this possible?" he asked, his voice rising. "You’re saying my father is not my father? That Alpha Rolf—"
He turned slowly, his eyes searching the crowd until they landed on his mother, seated among Rolf’s people, her head bowed, hands clasped tightly in her lap. She would not meet his eyes.
Scott stepped closer. "Mum." His voice broke on the single word, and he took a step towards her, ignoring the whispers rippling through the hall around him. "Look at me. Is this true?"
She stared down at her hands, her shoulders curling inward as if she could make herself smaller, or disappear from the weight of his stare.
"Mum," he said again, sharper this time, desperate for anything, a denial, an explanation, or even a lie he could cling to. "Say something."
She said nothing at all.
That silence told him everything he needed to know. Scott’s jaw tightened, and his whole body went rigid with fury. He looked at her a moment longer, then turned on his heel and strode out of the hall without another word, shoving past anyone who didn’t move fast enough to clear his path.
It took a long while for the hall to settle after that, elders calling for order, alphas murmuring amongst themselves; the whole room became thick with tension.
When the noise finally dropped low enough, Jake cleared his throat and stepped forward once more, the folder still in his hands.
He placed the documents carefully on the long table in front of the elders. "These are proofs," he said. "The original land records of the Ironfang family’s claim to this pack, and photographs from the day everything changed hands."
He handed the photographs to the elder nearest him, who passed them along the row, each elder examining them in turn, murmuring to one another. Then the images went up on the big screen at the front of the hall, and the entire room fell silent.
There, in grainy but unmistakable photographs, stood Claire’s father, tall and proud in ceremonial robes, handing the pack’s staff to a much younger Rolf.
Behind him, faded but legible, sat the seal of the Ironfang line stamped across the original deed.
The elders spent a long while deliberating, heads bent together, voices low, while the entire hall watched and held its breath.
Kira stood gripping Derek’s hand so hard her knuckles had gone white, watching every flicker of expression on the elders’ faces, trying to read an outcome before it was given.
Finally, the presiding elder rose. "After thorough review of the evidence presented, this council finds in favour of Claire Ironfang. Moonfang pack is, and always has been, hers and her bloodline by right."
Celebration and cheers broke out on Kira’s side of the hall. Claire’s eyes filled with tears. Several of the Northern and Western Lunas stood and clapped, and Kira let out a bright, relieved laugh and threw her arms around her mother for a moment before turning to Derek, her face glowing.
She turned into his chest, laughing through the sudden sting of tears, and he wrapped both arms around her, holding her like he never planned on letting go.
The elder’s voice cut through the celebration a moment later. "Rolf, you are found guilty of fraud, theft, deception and the forging of pack documents. This council orders you taken to the central werewolf dungeon, to be held until further judgement is passed."
Two large gammas moved forward with silver chains. Rolf didn’t resist as they moved towards him; he simply stood there, watching them come with an unsettling calm.
The calm in his eyes made Kira’s stomach tighten. This was not the reaction of a defeated man. As the gammas clasped the silver cuffs around his wrists, Rolf’s mouth curved into a smirk, his eyes flicking between Jake and Kira.
It wasn’t supposed to feel like this. Winning wasn’t supposed to leave an uneasy weight sitting in her chest. She kept her face still, refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing it rattle her, even as something in her gut told her this wasn’t over, not really.
As the gammas led him past Jake, Rolf leaned in close enough that only his former Beta could hear him.
"You’re barking up the wrong tree, Jake," he murmured, his voice low and almost pleasant. "This isn’t over."
Jake said nothing, watching Rolf get marched towards the doors with the rest of the hall trailing behind, eager to see the man who’d lorded over them for years finally led away in chains.
Kira fell into step beside Derek as they followed the crowd out into the courtyard, the cool air settling over her skin after the stifling heat of the hall. She slipped her hand into the pocket of his trousers.
Derek glanced down at her, one eyebrow lifting. "Are you cold?"
"No." She flashed him a bright smile, tilting her head up at him. "I just like the feel of it."
He huffed out something close to a laugh, pulling her a little closer against his side as they walked.
The moment did not last as a sudden, sharp howl cut through the air. Then another. And another. From the tree line and the far edges of the grounds, dark shapes poured forward in numbers. Umbras, more than anyone had seen in one place before.
Screams tore through the courtyard as the crowd scattered, and within seconds clothes were being ripped off and discarded in every direction as werewolves and Lycans alike shifted, fur and claws replacing skin in the space of a single breath.
Derek shoved Kira behind him without hesitation, already shifting, Leo surging forward as he threw himself into the fray.
Around them, the courtyard turned into chaos, snarling bodies colliding, blood staining the stones, flying bodies and the heavy thud of impact.
Kira was pulled back toward the safety of the main building with the other women, while Derek and the rest of the fighters met the attack head-on.
The fight raged on, brutal and relentless, howls of pain cutting through the night as wolves and Lycans fell on both sides, some rising back to their feet, others not moving at all.
Just when the defenders began to push the Umbras back, the attackers did something no one expected. They turned and ran.
Every last Umbra broke away at once, vanishing into the trees as quickly as they had come. The sudden retreat left the courtyard in stunned silence.
Slowly, bodies began shifting back, human forms replacing fur, chests heaving, blood and dirt smeared across bare skin as everyone looked around, trying to make sense of an enemy that outnumbered them and still chose to run.
"Where did they go?" someone asked.
"Why run now?"
"Where is Alpha Rolf?" one gamma asked.
Everyone looked around and saw the chain used on Rolf broken on the ground where he’d been standing only minutes before.
Voices rose all around the courtyard, confused, panicked, everyone asking the same question at once, demanding to know where he’d disappeared to in the middle of the attack.
Derek turned in place, scanning the courtyard, eyes searching every direction. The women who had been taken inside for safety started to come out again in small groups. He watched each face carefully — Lunas, Betas’ wives, high-ranking pack members.
Kira was not among them.
He moved through the growing crowd, checking again, his heart beginning to pound harder with every face that wasn’t hers. He turned to the nearest group of fighters and to Kai, who had just shifted back.
"Where is Kira?"