Chapter 85 The Treaty is signed 1

Chapter 85: Chapter 85 The Treaty is signed 1

Talia’s POV

The silence in the room was heavier than any words.

Alpha Stone sat slumped in his throne, gasping for breath. His chest rose and fell in sharp, uneven bursts, and his hands rested on the arms of the throne, trembling.

The guards looked at each other, confused. Their hands had dropped from their weapons, but they did not know what to do. They looked at their Alpha, then at me, then back at their Alpha.

Kaelen stood inches away from me now, still as stone. I could feel his eyes on my back, but I did not turn around.

I stood in the center of the room, with my heart still pounding. The power had receded, but I could still feel it lingering warmly beneath my skin, and it seemed like it was waiting.

It was like embers after a fire.

I did not fully understand what had just happened, or what I was feeling, but I knew something had changed inside me.

I did not know what it was, and I did not know if it would come back, but I knew it had saved me. Or rather, it had saved all of us. I would figure out what it meant later. For now, I just needed to breathe.

After a while, Alpha Stone looked up at me again, with eyes that were filled with something like defeat, acceptance, and something else that looked almost like relief.

"I will sign the treaty," he said finally. His voice was quiet, and tired, and it did not echo with rage like before.

The words hung in the air, and for a moment, no one moved. The guards in front stared at their Alpha like they had never seen him before, and one of them shifted his weight from foot to foot, clearly uncomfortable.

Kaelen’s hand finally relaxed on his weapon, but his body still looked tense. It looked as if he was waiting for something to happen, for Alpha Stone to change his mind, for the guards to attack, or for something to go wrong.

But nothing went wrong.

Alpha Stone just sat there, staring at me with those tired, defeated eyes.

I let out a breath I did not know I was holding.

"You are making the right choice," I said.

"I hope so," he answered. "For all our sakes."

The guards looked at him in shock. One of them, who was the tall wolf that had met me at the door upon our arrival, opened his mouth to speak, but Alpha Stone held up his hand.

I looked at Kaelen, and I saw his eyes were widened slightly as well, even though he was trying to put on a calm face. I could see that he also looked surprised at Alpha Stone’s words and acceptance, like he could not believe they were real.

I looked back at Alpha Stone, but I did not show my surprise either. I kept my face calm, and I nodded.

"Then we have an agreement," I said.

Alpha Stone straightened in his throne. He looked like the negotiation had made him older now, and smaller somehow. The rage that had filled him had drained away, leaving behind a tired, broken wolf.

"Bring parchment and ink," he said to one of the guards.

The guard hesitated. "Alpha..."

"NOW," he commanded.

The guard bowed and hurried out of the room.

Then Alpha Stone looked at me. "You are not what I expected, Luna."

"You have said that before," I replied.

"I meant it then, and I mean it more now," he said.

The fire crackled in the hearth behind him, casting shadows across his weathered face. I thought about everything he had lost: his mate, his wolves, and his pride. And I thought about everything I had lost too: my mother, my childhood, and my home.

We were not so different, Alpha Stone and I.

We had both suffered, and we had both been failed by the people who should have protected us. But the difference between us was that I had chosen to fight, while he had chosen to hide behind his anger—until now.

That was the difference between us.

I had nothing left to lose, while he had everything: his pack, his pride, and his memory of his mate. Letting go of anger was harder than holding on to it, and I knew that. But he had done it anyway, and I knew that took courage. So much more courage than fighting.

"The past cannot be changed," I said. "But the future can. That is why we are here."

He looked at me, and he nodded slowly.

The guard returned with a roll of parchment and a small pot of ink. Then another guard followed behind him with a quill.

I spoke directly to Alpha Stone. "Prepare two copies instead. One for Stoneclaw Pack, and one for Shadowfang Pack."

Alpha Stone looked at me for a moment, then he nodded at the guards. "You heard her. Make it two copies."

The guards nodded, and prepared two scrolls, laying them side by side on a small table near the throne. The parchment was thick and yellowed, and the ink was dark as night.

The room was quiet except for the scratch of the quill as the guard wrote. He copied the terms carefully, his handwriting neat and precise.

I watched him work, and I thought about what this moment meant. Not just for me, but for Shadowfang, for Stoneclaw, and for every wolf who had lost someone to this endless conflict.