Page 77 of Guarded By The Alpha

"So we make it about what you saw," she said. "Before they can make it about anything else."

"The testimony's already built for that," Gideon added. "Every piece of evidence checked against footage that predates the bond. The timeline's documented. The records are clean."

Roan hadn't moved from his place near the window. His voice was quiet when he spoke.

"What do you need from us?"

Not "what should we do." Not "how do we handle this."

What do you need.

I looked at him. At the team that had gathered around this table over eighteen hours of prep. At thirteen years of Council operations spread across the screens.

"I need you to let me work," I said. "And then I need you to let me testify."

Jace appeared in the doorway behind Tara. He took in the room, the tension, the second motion on Gideon's screen.

He said nothing.

That was its own kind of support.

I turned back to my notes and pulled up the testimony. The Council's lawyer thought they could turn this hearing into a fight about the bond—about whether my waking blood made me unreliable, compromised, a thing that had been made rather than a witness.

They were wrong.

I'd spent six hours in a Council facility documenting everything I saw while being underestimated. I'd spent seven years walking into crime scenes and building records out of observation and instinct and the specific skill of seeing what official stories tried to leave out.

They'd planned for what the bond might do to my credibility.

They hadn't planned for what I'd do with their challenge.

I started rebuilding the opening of my testimony to answer the lawyer's argument before they could make it. Getting there first. The same thing I did at crime scenes when I knew the official report would try to bury certain evidence.

Get there first. Make the record.

The coffee was getting cold in my hands. I didn't notice until Tara swapped it for a fresh cup sometime around 0700.

Roan was still by the window when I looked up again. Still watching. Still present without pressure.

The bond between us was warm and specific and steady.

I turned back to the work.

Chapter 25

The Price of Return

NOVA

The warded hall carried the weight of centuries in its walls. I stood at the witness place and let the gravity of it settle into my bones—every pack accord ever struck in these chambers, every precedent set under this roof, all of it pressing against my skin like something I could almost taste.

Seven oversight seats. Every one of them filled.

The senior seat held an older wolf whose stillness reminded me of Roan in a way that made my chest tight. Authority that didn't announce itself. The kind of power that simply existed and expected the room to organize around it.

The Council's lawyer sat with the ease of someone who'd worked this room before. I catalogued the details without meaning to—the angle of his shoulders, the way his hands rested on the table, the particular patience in his expression. He'd defended the Council in hearings like this one. He knew exactly how to turn the rules themselves into a weapon.

I didn't look at the back of the hall where Roan stood with Jace at his shoulder. I didn't have to. The bond was warm and certain in my chest, pointing at him like true north, and I could feel the steady quality of his attention without turning my head.