Chapter 167: She Made Me Do It, Alpha

"With respect, he never claimed she should be ashamed of her body," Sebastian chimed in. "That is not the issue on the table." He gestured loosely down the row of them. "Aren’t you lot supposed to be the conservative ones? Half of you clutch your pearls at the word thigh."

"We weren’t always this way," Dante offered mildly, not bothering to lift his head. "Takes a man a certain number of decades to turn prudish. Ask me about the Cinderfall Festival of my youth sometime, then tell me I’m qualified to judge a girl in her underthings." He paused. "Actually, don’t. Freya would have me shoveling snow until spring."

The room broke. A couple of the captains lost it too, and the tension drained out of the air like heat off a stone.

When it settled, another elder leaned forward, his fingers steepled. "Alpha. The High Luna informed us she personally granted the princess permission to enter your chambers. Is the High Luna aware of this arrest?"

"I spoke with the High Luna." His tone held level. "That is not a thing. I am the Alpha. I said no. And setting that aside entirely, you cannot grant someone permission to enter a home that is not yours. It is still breaking and entering."

"She may have been confused by the overlapping authority, Alpha," the elder suggested, nodding along to himself. "An honest person caught between the word of her Alpha and the word of her High Luna could reasonably—"

Tavian raised both hands, palms out, serene, already wearing the expression that comes from knowing exactly how this ends. "Respectfully. We have a holo-feed on the matter. All of it. Can we hold the verdicts until after we have watched the thing, instead of writing the girl’s closing defense statement for her?"

"Celeste snuck into my chambers this morning. With syringes." Alpha Thunderfang turned his attention to Astra. "What do you have for me?"

"The first substance was a tetrarachnid-derived neurotoxin," she replied. "Refined. It paralyzes the voluntary muscles within seconds and, at a high enough concentration, the involuntary ones too. In most subjects that means total immobilization. In some it means the diaphragm stops and they suffocate on dry land. It is banned on every continent and has been for over a century." She set her hand flat on the table. "Captain Harlan was briefed this morning."

A man seated among the captains straightened. Nova recognized him. The gloves, the braid, the silver cuffs he had carried into Alpha Thunderfang’s chambers at dawn. Her gut had pegged him as a captain and her gut had been right.

"That was reported to the chief of police directly, Alpha," he confirmed. "Both syringes logged into evidence."

"The second," Astra continued, "was a sedative. But there was a secondary compound suspended in it that I have not finished identifying. I should have an answer for you by tonight. It does not match anything in our formulary, which tells me it was not sourced anywhere legal."

An elder cleared her throat softly, a small sound that was powerful because this woman was one of the few who had not spoken yet. "The paralytic was likely intended for the girl. Remove the girl from your chambers, Alpha, and the princess would not feel driven to such measures."

Alpha Thunderfang’s eyes narrowed on her.

"The girl’s name is Nova. I made myself clear yesterday. She is my brother’s mate, which means a protected member of the royal family. She has a dislocated shoulder that’s still healing, no wolf, and she was asleep. Celeste has a wolf. If I had not been in that room, there would have been zero way for Nova to defend herself against what was in those syringes. I don’t care what rank you hold. I don’t care what name follows yours. You attempt to harm a member of my pack, you answer for it."

"With respect, Alpha," the elder pressed. "You placed an unmated woman in your private chambers while betrothed to another. That is not a neutral act. Any betrothed woman, regardless of temperament, would perceive that as a replacement. This table must consider the conditions under which those actions became, in the princess’s mind, necessary."

"I placed Nova in my chambers because my brother is in a coma and everything else in the keep has already failed her. If the presence of another woman in my quarters is enough to justify banned neurotoxins, then the princess is telling you exactly who she is." He shook his head once in clear disappointment. "If your granddaughter was the woman in that bed, Elder, would you be discussing conditions? Or would you be discussing the woman holding the needles?"

The elder did not argue it further. But the one beside her did.

"Alpha, no one is disputing that what occurred was serious. But the princess is Starborne. She is not a member of your pack. She is a foreign dignitary operating under a pre-union accord. You cannot try her under Thunderfang law."

The response left Alpha Thunderfang’s mouth before the elder’s sentence finished landing, like he had been waiting for exactly that.

"Funny you bring that up, Elder. The pre-union accord dissolved with the betrothal. Yesterday morning. The moment that engagement ended, so did her diplomatic status. She is not a foreign dignitary. She is a foreign national who committed a crime on Thunderfang soil with a banned substance. And foreign nationals who commit crimes on my land answer to my law. If Alpha Starborne wants to dispute that, he can submit a formal challenge. I’ll be here."

Under the table, Maria found Nova’s hand and squeezed it.

"Captain Harlan." Alpha Thunderfang’s attention cut back to the man with the gloves. "Tell me you have footage."

"Yes, Alpha." Captain Harlan swiped his wrist and the holo-table bloomed to life above its surface. "It was multiple times. Brace yourselves."

The first feed resolved into focus, and the war room leaned in as one organism.