The Messenger( Iva) novel Chapter 272

Make an Example II-2

He led her back into the corridor and told her everything.

The King’s raid on the pack. The Alpha’s defiance. The Luna’s betrayal. The rescue.

By the time he finished, Iva was trembling.

“Now what happens?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Caleb’s expression hardened.

Claim

“There will be a Council gathering,” he said. “The Alpha’s crimes will be presented. His pack leadership will be dismantled.” He paused. “But I would not be concerned for us. The Alpha and that pack have serious reasons to worry.”

Iva leaned into him.

“I can’t believe it’s over,” she whispered. “I can’t believe she’s safe.”

Caleb pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“It’s over,” he said. “Or at least, this part is.”

Iva looked up at him.

“What do you mean?”

“The Alpha heir,” she said slowly. “Nick. He escaped?”

Caleb nodded, his jaw tight. “He wasn’t at the pack house when my father’s forces arrived. The Alpha must have warned him somehow. By the time we secured the perimeter, Nick was already gone.”

Iva waited for the name to stir something in her.

It didn’t.

The thought of Nick-her first fated mate, the one who humiliated her constantly, the one who rejected her -should have evoked something. Anger. Fear. Resentment.

But all she felt was… nothing.

He was a closed chapter. A buried past. A ghost that no longer had any power over her.

“The trial will happen this afternoon,” Caleb continued, watching her carefully. “The Alpha will stand before the Council. His crimes will be presented. His leadership will be dismantled.”

Iva nodded slowly.

But Caleb wasn’t finished.

“There is one more thing.”

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<Make an Example 1-2

Iva looked up at him.

Claim

“Not only the Alpha will stand trial,” he said, his voice dropping lower. “But also the high-ranking families. The abuses went on way too long, and the Council wants to uncover the full extent of the corruption and abuses.”

Iva froze.

The implications of his words crashed over her like a wave.

“High-ranking families,” she repeated slowly. “That means…”

Caleb reached across the table and took her hands. His grip was firm, steady.

“Your father will be there as well,” he said gently. “On the accused side.”

Iva’s breath caught.

Her father.

The man who had watched while the Alpha tried to sell her. Who had never raised his voice in protest. Who had stood by and let his daughter be treated like merchandise.

“I wanted to ask you,” Caleb continued, his voice careful. “Do you want to bring forward the need for justice for your case as well? How they tried to force your mating?”

Iva stared at him.

The question hung in the air between them.

She thought about everything her father had done. The silence. The complicity. The way he had looked away when she needed him most.

She thought about the years of pain, of being ignored. The running away. The fear. The loneliness.

And then she thought about her mother. About the woman who had finally found the courage to leave. About the new life she was building, free from the shadows of her past.

“What would happen to him?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Caleb’s expression was steady.

“That depends on what you want. If you testify, he could face consequences. Exile. Loss of status. Perhaps imprisonment.”

Iva was silent for a long moment.

“Will it hurt my mother?” she finally asked. “If I testify?”

Caleb shook his head. “Your mother has already filed for bond dissolution. She is no longer connected to him in any legal sense. And she is under the Crown’s protection.”

Iva nodded slowly.

She looked out the window at the mountains in the distance. At the endless sky. At the future that

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< Make an Exemple 41-2

stretched before her, full of possibility

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