Wolf Princess Sold to the Dragon King novel Chapter 224

Chapter 224: The Sunk Cost

All day the chain had been collapsing across eight hundred miles of bullshit. Domino fourteen was buried twenty feet deep and had been edging for this moment. Every elder he passed on the way down added something to the pile. By the time Renwick Lunaris hit the stairs, the pile was on fire.

DOMINO 14: THE WRITE-OFF

LUNARIS DUNGEON - 7:10 PM

More than an hour of stalling. Cassian was finally ready to confront whatever hell had visited his keep. Stood. Stretched. Back-pocket key grab. Then he immediately turned into a statue.

Footsteps.

Renwick materialized at the end of the hallway. Stopped dead at Cassian’s bars. Took in the full horror show on his son’s face: the burn, the handprint branded through skin and skull, and didn’t so much as wince.

For one second, relief broke across Cassian’s face like sunrise through clouds. His father was back and would magically unfuck this disaster. Cute.

"Father."

"I’m going to ask you this once. Why?"

Cassian didn’t flinch."Treason."

"Lunaris law requires a written charge, witnessed by two elders, before punishment can be administered for treason. You’ve studied this. I made you study this. Did you file the goddamn charge?"

"Obviously not. Every elder in that room watched her walk in," Cassian said. "Every elder saw what I saw. You taught me that when evidence is visible to the court, the charge is redundant. Your words."

Renwick nodded once.

"So you felt the need to whip her with no charge."

"False. Article twelve," Cassian retorted. "Violation of a ratified contract by a member of the ruling house equals treason against the sovereign and the allied party. I didn’t write the fucking law, Father. You did. I enforced it."

"Enforced it," Renwick repeated.

"Yes. She broke a contract with the most powerful military in the world. Not a trade deal. Not a marriage of convenience. A military contract. The penalty for deserting or violating under Lunaris law is flogging or execution. I went with the version that didn’t leave a corpse."

"Every single step you ignored made the charges dead on arrival," Renwick replied. "You had a clean case and you still handled it like a fucking thug."

"A thug implies I followed no procedure," Cassian countered. "The whipping I ordered is legal under the Sovereign Right of Correction. I didn’t order it right out of the gate. It happened after she was blatantly disrespectful and refused to answer a single fucking question in front of two hundred witnesses. She left me no choice. You’re standing there telling me I was too harsh?"

"I am not saying you were too harsh. I don’t care that you hit her. If you had filed the charge, I could defend you. If you had done it privately, I could deny it."

Cassian opened his mouth. Renwick held up his hand.

"You gave me nothing to work with and two hundred people to work against. You punished her without the paperwork. That means legally, you didn’t punish a traitor. You assaulted a princess and the future queen of Velkaris."

Cassian’s jaw flexed. "If I punish her privately, the pack hears rumors. Rumors mutate. Half the Keep thinks she’s a traitor and the other half thinks I covered for her."

Renwick’s expression didn’t change. Zero reaction. Absolute ice.

"You spit in her face as well."

"She wouldn’t answer any questions," Cassian replied. "Full court watching. Right after the lashes. Then she decided to start dropping proverbs on me. What would YOU have done if a subordinate violated a military contract, refused to answer or give any context, and was acting defiant during sentencing?"

"I can spin a whipping as justice, Cassian. I cannot spin spit. One is policy. The other is personal. Which one do you think they’ll remember? You spit in the face of a woman who was cuffed, bleeding, and on her knees and whose husband commands an entire continental army."

Renwick paused, letting out a breath. "Every mark you put on her is a line item in a negotiation I now have to win twice."

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