The Alpha King And His Chosen Luna novel Chapter 77

What wakes beside me–1

(Caius)

I lifted the page again, but didn’t read at once.

My attention remained on Isla beside me, though anyone watching would only see a brief pause before proceedings continued. Her face was composed again, more than it had been a moment ago, but there was something changed in the air around her that no paper in my hand could distract me from. Vorak had gone utterly alert inside me, silent now in the way he became when instinct had already reached a conclusion before language caught up.

I knew what I’d just witnessed.

Not fully, not in every detail, but enough. Something buried in her had answered the pressure of this place, this room, these names, these people forced to hear truth spoken aloud where lies had ruled for years. Sera had been right. Isla’s wolf had never been absent. It had been driven inward, starved, cornered, held beneath pain and fear until survival required silence.

Now silence was failing.

I kept my voice level when I began again.

“Maren Hale, you stand charged with continued participation in unlawful punishment, deprivation of food, willful neglect of duty, and the maintenance of abusive conditions under your authority within this household.” The words carried cleanly through the hall. “You stand further charged with repeated refusal to intervene when intervention was both possible and required.”

Maren’s eyes were still on Isla.

That interested me.

Not because Maren feared punishment, though she did. Not because she feared public disgrace, though that too had found her at last. She was looking at Isla because she had sensed the same thing I had, even if she lacked the language for it. Predators noticed when what they had misjudged began to rise in front of

them.

I continued reading.

“You used rank to authorize labor under unlawful confinement. You benefited from coerced service. You allowed injury to go untreated while assigning further work. You knowingly preserved conditions intended to exhaust and degrade.” I turned the page with measured hands. “These actions weren’t passive failures. They were active choices sustained over time.”

The room stayed still.

Fear had changed shape now. Earlier it had belonged mostly to those already named. Now it had spread wider. The pack understood something more than legal judgment was taking place in front of them. They could feel it without knowing how to name it. Wolves always sensed change before they understood it.

Beside me, Isla’s breathing remained deeper than usual.

I could hear it because I was listening for nothing else with equal care. The strange intensity that had

What wakay

come over her hadn’t vanished. It had settled into something contained, for now. The scent of her had changed too, touched by heat and something newly awake beneath it.

Vorak stirred.

‘She rises.‘

‘Yes,’ I said inwardly.

‘Guard her.‘

‘I already am!

I read the next section.

“Maren Hale, you also stand charged with concealment through false domestic order. Repeated presentation of household normalcy intended to mask ongoing abuse. Suppression of staff concerns. Direction of servants to silence. Maintenance of appearances while crimes continued under your roof.”

A murmur threatened at the rear of the hall.

Raith took one step toward it and the sound died before it was born. Good man. He understood that order was often maintained by the promise of force rather than its use. No one here would interrupt what had begun.

Maren finally looked at me.

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