The Council

RETH

Reth sat in his chair in the council room, boiling in fury. "Explain to me, please, how that is any of your business?" he said through his teeth to the three wolves standing in front of him.

Behyrn and two members of the guard had stood casually a full half-hour earlier and placed themselves to either side of Reth. They stood loosely and didn't draw weapons. Not yet. But Reth couldn't believe they'd even had to think they might need to protect him. From council members!

The wolves rolled their eyes. Lerrin, the second-in-command under Lucan, stood in the middle and was spokesman for today. Reth hadn't missed that Lucan was smart enough not to be a public part of this disaster.

"You choose a human to be Queen, then don't even mate her? How is that not our business?" Lerrin growled. "The mating ceremony was a success—we thought. The ancestral line would be safe. But now? The entire city knows she hasn't taken you. It weakens your position, which weakens all of us."

There were a dozen other men in the room listening to every word. Reth prayed they weren't swallowing this garbage from the wolves.

"Elia was brought to our world, against her own will—against her knowledge!—and thrown into a Blood Rite. Then she had a mating ceremony with a stranger."

"You are not a stranger to her!"

"For the purposes of mating a virgin, I am!" Reth snarled. "If she isn't yet ready, I will not push her!"

"Human bullshit," Lerrin spat, and the men either side of him shifted on their feet. "Any Anima woman—stranger or not—would have taken you in a heartbeat and you know it. She is not one of us! She is not our Queen!"

The intake of breath in the room was swift, and audible. Reth was on his feet without thought, and Behryn at his shoulder before Lerrin could reconsider the wisdom of those words that ran so dangerously close to treason.

The tension in the room thickened the air as Reth strode up to the man, ignoring the others at his sides.

"Rethink your words, Lerrin, before I bite out your throat for treason against the crown," he snarled.

Lerrin's eyes were cold, but he'd tensed. He'd said too much and he knew it. But he wasn't slow-witted. His words made Reth cold.

"I spoke hastily," Lerrin growled. "But take my meaning clearly: She comes as a stranger to us, and to our ways. She forced you to choose her, rather than winning you, and now she denies you on your mating night?"

"Her customs are very different. She'd just been through a blood rite and she's a virgin. Can you blame the woman for being careful?"

"I haven't been to the human world, so I don't know if I can blame her. I do know I can blame you for bringing her to us," Lerrin said frankly. "How can we, as a people, trust a woman who lives and chooses so differently than we would? How can we follow her, not knowing where she'll lead? And if you would choose her, why would we trust your judgment if she is so foreign to us, but she is what you believe is best for us?"

Reth let a low growl roll in his throat. "You trust me because I am your King, your Alpha, and I have proven myself worth trusting!"

Lerrin stared at him without reaction for several breaths. The entire room remained silent. Reth refused to be the one to break the tension. But a part of him didn't relax until Lerrin broke eye-contact.

"As you say, Majesty," he said through a tight jaw. "You have proven yourself. But let me be the first to tell you: If you are wrong in this… it will overshadow your victories."

Reth gritted his teeth so hard they almost cracked.