Alpha Nocturne's Contracted Mate

339 Public Executions Of Raiders

The council chamber was already packed when Ann arrived, still battling the anxiety that she felt from the attack less than an hour ago. When she first came back to the palace, she had been nervous about the meetings with the nobles, but now, she was downright sick of court life.

All they did was sit around moaning and plotting and gossiping. It wasn't at all what she had expected and already, after such a short time, she was sick of the sight of both the council hall and the majority of the faces that populated it.

The air was already humming with their poisonous voices as noble hunched over briefing sheets, with papers spread across the polished table and maps pinned with far too many red markers.

Adam followed her in, wearing a fresh suit that wasn't splattered in the blood of the assassin and Brad had taken up his silent post at the far end, deliberately outside the circle. His presence still pulled at every gaze in the room.

Ann sat with her hands folded and the room stilled.

"Let's start," she said.

The Captain cleared his throat.

"Your Majesty, multiple blocks were hit overnight, especially in the Eastern sector. Coordinated fires were set and the feed to the surveillance cameras was cut ahead of time. Civilians were herded, some were taken and those that were not were mutilated, branded and marked, and left alive to spread word. They all bring tales of strange creatures…the stuff of nightmares."

"If it's anything like what we faced in the coven's hideout I can bet that Ely has a whole lot more where those came from." Adam murmured quietly, "It would also explain why he's abducting so many." He grimaced.

"Hmm. Spare parts for the fleshcrafter..." Ann murmured darkly so that only he could hear.

Lady Maren's hand fluttered to her pearls, feigned horror polished to perfection.

"Mutilated and left alive? What cruelty."

Lord Riven leaned forward, voice oily.

"Whether through word of his cruelty, or through his strategy of attack, Ely wants the story carried straight to us. And its definitely working. He is escalating in the frequency of his attacks and the stories the refugees bring only serve to stoke more fear."

Ann's jaw tightened.

"We already knew he would escalate. We planned for that eventuality, so there's no need to gasp at it and pretend that this was never foreseen."

Adam's fist hit the table with a dull crack.

"Talking won't stop him. We need to move. Strike first. Burn them out."

"Open war?" Ann asked with a soft scoff, her voice flat.

"Yes." His wolf snarled as he sat behind Adam's eyes, "Now. We can't watch the people suffer anymore than they have already."

The chamber buzzed instantly, nobles murmuring at the idea of blood on someone else's doorstep.

Lady Darnell seized the moment.

"Your Majesty, your mate speaks sense. The people need to see strength, not…hesitance." Her gaze sharpened. "If you hesitate, you invite more attacks."

Adam leaned forward.

"Exactly. Show Ely any hint of fear and he'll gut us in our sleep. Show him another war and he'll learn his place. We beat them back the first time, and our only mistake was not hunting down every single last one of them."

"Oh brilliant," Maeve snorted. "Let's hand him some fireworks and call it a strategy. We should really consider asking Ely if he's capable of installing a mute button on certain people…it would save us a hell of a lot of hassle in the long run."

Ann forced her voice steady.

"None of you are thinking clearly at all, you're playing right into this. Ely wants us to lunge. He wants chaos in the streets and soldiers trampling through neighborhoods while he slips in the cracks and whispers of our secret plan to enact forcible subjugation of the population. I refuse to give him the satisfaction of giving him that show and enabling him to recruit new blood to his cause."

Riven scoffed.

"So you propose that we wait? Until he brands his coven's claim on more bodies? Until people start asking if their Queen is too weak to fight in their name and protect them?"

The words were said in the heat of the moment and the moment they left his mouth, it was clear that he regretted it.

Adam bristled instantly and growled a clear warning.

"Watch your mouth when you speak to your Queen."

Riven flushed but he held firm and didn't back down.

"I'm only voicing what people already whisper."

Ann's carefully constructed mask didn't crack.

"Then let me make this easy... I am not weak. I'm alive after two assassination attempts, which is more than most of you could claim. If Ely thinks that his attempts to induce terror rattles me, he's very wrong."

The chamber quieted for a few minutes.

"Good Queenie…" Maeve encouraged softly, knowing how fragile Ann felt in this moment, "You're doing well. Keep reminding them of who is in charge."

Lady Darnell jumped back in.

"My Queen, decisive action is required whether you want to act or not. We double, triple and quadruple the patrols as each day passes, and it's just not enough. You need something…anything at this point. Public executions of raiders...a public show to appease the people and a public show to strike fear into the hearts of Ely and his lackeys!"

Ann turned her gaze on her, cold fury radiating from behind her eyes.

"You have no idea what the coven is capable of and how they control people, the vast majority of them are nothing more than thralls! Ely won't fear this, he'll laugh at our stupidity as we weaken our own numbers! Do you really want me to kill my own citizens to look strong?"