The council chamber felt colder than the battlefield.
Stone walls held quiet judgment.
The long wooden table stretched beneath the dim golden light of iron lanterns while elders, guards, and senior wolves gathered around the chamber in heavy silence, and though no chains rattled within the room the tension surrounding the lone figure standing at the center carried the unmistakable weight of judgment waiting to fall.
Serena stood with her chin lifted proudly.
Her wrists were restrained.
The elegant woman who had once walked through the estate halls with effortless grace now looked like a fallen noble forced to face the quiet cruelty of fate, yet the bitterness burning behind her sharp eyes revealed that humiliation had not broken her spirit but sharpened it into something colder and more dangerous.
Alessandro sat at the head of the table.
His expression remained calm.
