Chapter 326: The Room Already Knew

Nicholas leaned back one inch and the entire table leaned forward, drawn like gravity.

"You forfeited equal when you brought Dark Fae into a wolf summit under guest right, which this table has honored since before any of our fathers were born, and held a blade against an unarmed woman’s throat. You’re standing here because I thought the table should hear what you have to say before that decision gets made."

Every Alpha understood what he meant: this was a trial and the defendant had been handed the floor and the only question was how badly he was going to hang himself with it.

Tharos looked at Nicholas with the expression of a man who had already accepted his ending and was going to make damn sure it was entertaining.

"You want to know about the Dark Fae. Fine. I’ll give you the Dark Fae. But first, I want every Alpha in this chamber to hear something they already know and have been too chickenshit to say out loud."

He pointed at Nicholas. The chain rattled.

"It’s the girl. Your mate. Whatever the fuck she is. The Dark Fae are here because of HER. She’s the one they want. Every breach. Every portal. Every pack that’s been hit. Follow the thread and it leads back to one woman. You want to save the wolves of Nyros? Get rid of the girl. Hand her over. They made it abundantly clear she’s all they want."

The chamber didn’t react.

The silence was the kind where every man had independently arrived at the same conclusion and was choosing to keep their mouths shut because the man in chains had just said it in front of the accused’s mate and nobody was stupid enough to second that motion out loud.

Nicholas listened. His face gave the room nothing.

"Your concern is noted."

The most dismissive sentence in the history of diplomacy. Tharos had just proposed sacrificing the woman Nicholas loved in front of every Alpha on the continent and the response was four words.

Tharos’s grin cracked for the first time. He had been expecting rage. Fury. A roar. Something he could point at and say see, the man can’t lead because his feelings are in the chair. He got nothing. The grin recovered but the crack had been visible and every Alpha at the table saw it.

"The Dark Fae have been attacking packs across the entire continent," Nicholas continued. "Packs that have zero connection to her. The operational scale isn’t consistent with a single target. If they only wanted one woman, they would have sent a retrieval team. They sent an army. Your own deal with them proves that, Tharos. They offered you military support to expand your territory. That’s colonization dressed in a handshake. She may be a priority. She is clearly not the only objective."

The logic landed clean.

"Now," Nicholas continued. "You mentioned you had information. Names. Locations. I’m going to let you share that with the room."

Tharos’s eyes narrowed. "And if I choose to keep my mouth shut?"

"Then you’ve used up the generosity I mentioned earlier and the table decides your fate without the benefit of your cooperation."

"Cooperation." Tharos laughed. It was the ugly, cold sound that belonged in a dark alley. "You want me to rat on every wolf who helped my operation. In front of the men I’d be ratting on. You think that’s cooperation? That’s a death sentence from every direction."

"You’re already facing one direction. Adding more doesn’t change the math. It changes who remembers you as the man who helped and who remembers you as the man who didn’t."

Tharos looked at the chamber. Looked at the chains.

"Fine." He cracked his neck. "Let’s burn it down."

He started with the first name and the chamber went cold.

"Veilcross."

Every head turned. Alpha Veilcross, who had been standing, obviously, went so still he looked taxidermied.

"That is a LIE. I have NEVER—"

"Sit down, Veilcross," Nicholas ordered. Veilcross sat so fast his chair rocked.

"Your eastern patrol route was adjusted six months ago to create a blind spot along the Stonehowl border," Tharos continued. "My men used that corridor for four months. Supplies. Scouts. Portal materials."

"I adjusted that route because of FLOODING. The eastern pass was IMPASSABLE—"

"Veilcross." Nicholas raised a hand. One hand. The same gesture that had silenced the room during the map debate. It worked again. "You’ll have your turn. Let him finish."

The second name dropped.

"Ashwick."

The Alpha three seats from the end jolted like he’d been stabbed with a fork.

"My men used your southern watchtower as a waystation for seven weeks. Your Gamma knew. He was compensated."

"My Gamma would NEVER—"

"He was paid in Dark Fae steel. Check his personal quarters. Wrapped in oilcloth."

Ashwick’s face collapsed inward. The man who had spent the entire summit screaming "I WAS BY THE DOOR" now looked like the door had fallen on him.

Third name.

"Greymane."

A mid-tier Alpha nobody had paid attention to for two sessions looked confused.

"Your harbor master let my ships dock without inspection for an entire season. Paid in gold. Documented. The ledger is in my study."

Greymane didn’t speak. He didn’t deny. He stared at his own token in the map like it had just told him his wife was leaving.

Fourth name.

"Coldridge."

The room was running out of colors for faces to turn. Alpha Coldridge, a quiet northerner who had contributed nothing to either session, closed his eyes and kept them closed.

"My primary staging ground for the western offensive. Your abandoned mine system. Three miles of tunnels. Still stocked."

Four names. Four packs. Each one a knife in the coalition Nicholas had just spent forty-five minutes building. The intelligence network he had proposed was being tested in real-time by the very information that should have powered it.

Tharos was grinning again. The grin of a man who had just watched a building he couldn’t burn get torched by its own wiring.

Nicholas hadn’t moved.

His eyes had tracked each accused Alpha without shifting his posture. No fury. No shock. No indication that the coalition he built was anything other than exactly as strong as it had been before the names dropped.

"Is that the full list?" Nicholas asked.

"For now."

"There is no for now. Yes or no."

Stonehowl didn’t answer.

"Very well. Remove him."

The guards moved. Tharos didn’t.

"You want to make me the villain. Fine. But every Alpha in this room knows the Dark Fae were coming regardless. You already know what you want to do with me."

Nicholas was unimpressed. "I do."

"Then say it."

"What happens to you is up to this table. I built it so every Alpha had a say. We’ve heard you and we will weigh it."

"Even when the voice is deciding my execution?"

"Especially then."

"That’s poetic. I hate it."

"You were supposed to."

Tharos turned his back on Nicholas, which was either a power move or a suicide wish, and faced the Alphas with the energy of a man dealing his last card to a table that didn’t want it.

"So this is it, then. He’s King of you all now. And you’re just fine with it."