Chapter 9 - The Trial of Cascade
The Grand Council Chamber of Croft Tower was styled like an ancient Norse court, constructed of dark iron, slate stone, and rough-hewn cedar beams that supported a towering glass dome overlooking the city.
Seven regional Alphas from across the Pacific Northwest sat in tiered stone seats, wearing formal black wool robes bearing their pack crests. Kane Croft sat in the center throne, carved from a single block of black basalt. He wore his formal Alpha coat, black with gold piping along the collar, his dark hair pulled back, his face hard and impenetrable.
At the center of the room, standing on a circular iron grate, stood my father.
Richard Hayes looked broken. The expensive silk suit he had worn to flee the country was rumpled and stained. His hands shook violently as two armed Croft enforcers flanked him, their assault rifles held across their chests.
When the double doors opened and I walked into the chamber, my father’s eyes darted toward me with desperate, pathetic hope.
"Harper!" he choked out, taking a step forward before an enforcer shoved him back with the butt of a rifle. "Harper, tell them! Tell them it was a misunderstanding! I did what I had to do to keep Cascade solvent! Marcus Mercer threatened our family!"
I didn't answer. I walked past him without a glance, my heels clicking sharply against the stone, and ascended the three steps to the dais where Kane sat.
Kane rose to meet me. Before the entire council of warlords, he reached out, took my right hand, and brought it to his lips, kissing the heavy platinum band. The gesture was a formal reaffirmation of our shared sovereignty—a clear message to the watching elders that to speak against me was to challenge his fangs.
He stepped back, gesturing to the empty basalt throne beside his.
I sat. The stone was cool, solid, unyielding beneath my back.
"Richard Hayes," Kane’s voice boomed through the chamber, rolling across the stone rafters like distant thunder. "You stand accused of dereliction of Alpha duty, grand embezzlement of pack funds, and active conspiracy with Mercer Defense to manufacture neuro-toxins on sovereign territory. How does Cascade plead?"
"I did it for the pack!" Richard cried, his voice pitching high into desperation. "The timber industry was dying! We had no cash flow! Marcus offered a development grant—"
"Marcus offered you three million dollars to turn our ancestral forest into a weapons testing ground," I cut in, my voice clear, ringing without a single tremor.
Richard flinched, looking at me from the floor of the pit. "Harper, please. I'm your father. I raised you. I gave you a seat on the council when the elders wanted you married off to an eastern pack!"
"You didn't give me a seat to lead, Richard," I said, leaning forward, gripping the carved armrests of the basalt throne. "You gave me a desk so I could sign your fraudulent purchase orders and take the blame when the checks bounced. You left Chloe in that lodge to burn while you packed gold bars into your carry-on luggage."
The regional Alphas around the room began to murmur in disgust. In our world, an Alpha who abandons his young to save his own skin is lower than a rabid cur.
"Under the Charter of 1884," Kane stated, his golden eyes sweeping over the assembled elders, "the punishment for an Alpha who betrays his territory to a hostile faction is ritual exile and the total revocation of his bloodline’s claims."
"No!" Richard fell to his knees, his hands clutching the iron grate beneath him. "You can't strip my bloodline! The Hayes family founded Cascade!"
"Your bloodline isn't being stripped," Kane countered, his hand dropping over mine where it rested on the throne. "It is being transferred. By decree of this Council and under the authority of the Croft Luna Ring, Richard Hayes is stripped of his title, his wolf mark, and his citizenship."
Kane looked down at me, his gaze softening by an imperceptible degree. "Sovereign Consort Hayes, what is your judgment on the prisoner?"
The entire chamber held its breath. Richard looked up at me, tears streaming through his wrinkles, waiting for the execution order.
I looked at the man who had cast me into the monster's den to cover his debts. I felt no rage. I felt only a profound, liberating emptiness.
"Exile," I said clearly. "He will be escorted to the southern border by sunrise with nothing but the clothes on his back and the cash in his wallet. If he ever sets foot in Washington State or contacts Chloe again, he will be hunted as a rogue."
Richard dropped his forehead to the cold stone, weeping in humiliation.
"So be it," Kane declared, standing. "Gideon, remove the traitor."
May you like
As the enforcers dragged my father out of the chamber, his cries fading down the stone corridor, Kane turned to face the remaining council elders.
"Cascade Territory is hereby incorporated into the Sovereign Croft Protectorate," Kane announced, his voice brooking no dissent. "With Harper Hayes reigning as its sole, sovereign Duchess. Meeting adjourned."
