Chapter 80

A thunderous pounding on the door jolted me from Elroy's embrace. My stomach flipped unpleasantly; we’d known the council would move fast, but I’d thought we’d at least get through the first commercial break before they rattled our door.

I locked eyes with my Mate, a grim and wordless conversation passing between us. It was time.

"Alpha Elroy! We demand an audience, immediately!" A gruff voice bellowed from the other side.

My stomach clenched as I smoothed down my rumpled clothes. "Ready?" I whispered.

Elroy nodded, his jaw set with determination. "Remember the plan," he murmured.

I wasn’t about to forget it. It was the closest thing to a lifeline I felt like I had at the moment—this was not going to be pleasant, but I had known it wouldn’t be. We just had to muscle through it.

I took a deep breath and opened the door, revealing a cluster of red-faced council members. Councilman Thorne stood with his hand raised to keep banging, and the moment he saw me he gave me a glare of absolute hate.

“Did you know?” the old man shouted. “Were you aware of this—this farce of an interview?” Elroy stepped up behind me, his hand on the small of my back anchoring me in place. We were facing this together.

“The broadcast must be shut down immediately,” a panicked older woman said. “The damage this will do to Eclipse—”

“The station had to have reached out to you!” Councilman Thorne said accusingly. “How could you allow this?”

“We have to run damage control—”

“We need to take decisive action against the Omega—”

Their voices overlapped each other in a confusing cacophony, but Elroy and I just stood there calmly—even though the very idea of punishing Ines for telling her own story made my blood boil. Down the hallway another frightened council member almost tripped on his own feet as he came to join the mob.

“Who gave you permission to enter our private dwelling space?” I asked coldly, making sure at least some of them heard me over the noise. There were a few affronted gasps, and a couple of people jerked back like they were just realizing what they’d done. As if they didn’t have to fight their way past the guards to get here.

We’d known some of them would get through. We kept only the two guards as always, and no one could possibly expect two men to hold back a flood of angry people. That there weren’t more in this crowd spoke to how hard the guards were fighting.

“This is a matter of emergency!” Councilman Thorne insisted, practically purple with rage. “It’s far more important than—”

"Gentlemen,” Elroy cut him off, raising his hand to quiet the group. “We will address the council in the council chambers. Please inform other members and proceed there immediately."

They sputtered indignantly, but we held firm. Thorne, realizing he wasn’t going to sway us, turned and stomped away. The others followed like ducklings.

Their blind obedience to him was something we were going to have to address.

Once the gathering had dispersed, Elroy's warm hand found the small of my back. "I've got you," he said softly. "We're in this together."

His touch sent a familiar wave through my body, calming my frayed nerves. I leaned into him briefly, drawing strength from his steady presence. He’d read my nervousness and fear before I had the chance to say a single word, and he had taken it on himself to soothe me.

And it did soothe me. We were together, and that was something I hadn’t thought we’d ever be.

"Let's go face the music," I said, pulling away and squaring my shoulders. Elroy nodded.

I wished we didn’t have to do this, I hated that this was a battle we had to fight, but we’d started this so we had to finish it. We made our way to the council chambers slowly, giving them time to gather. We didn’t want to have to explain this more than once.

Still, every step we made towards those ornate doors made me second-guess myself all over again. I despised facing the council, and the what-ifs kept flying through my head.

What if this didn’t work, and only made the council more stubborn? What if they acted against our orders in secret? What if the public outrage decided we were just as much to blame?

What if I couldn’t protect Ines?

We stopped in front of the doors, hearing chaos on the other side. I took a deep breath, and Elroy squeezed my hand. When I looked up at him, his face was intense.

“You are the Luna,” he said firmly. “You stand above these people in every way. They couldn’t touch you even if I weren’t here, and I am.”

I felt my resolve firm. Elroy was right—the council did not hold the power, and it was time for them to face it. I nodded, took a deep breath, and pushed open the doors.

The council members' angry faces greeted us, their voices rising in a cacophony of demands and accusations. But as I stepped into the room, a strange sense of calm washed over me. I felt my spine straighten, my chin lift.

This was my moment. I was ready for battle.

“Quiet,” Elroy demanded as we stepped into the room, releasing just a tinge of his Alpha aura. Just barely enough to feel, like a silent warning. The chamber fell silent, agitated.

“You will let us speak,” Elroy said, brooking no argument. “We will answer questions, but any attempt to speak over us will be treated as treason.” The council shifted uncomfortably, some of them notably furious.

Too bad for them.

I stepped forward, my voice clear and unwavering as I addressed the council. "Ines informed us she wanted to go public with her story,” I said firmly, eliciting several wordless noises from the council. “We did not stop her because we have no right to.”

The council did not like that statement at all.

“Ines has the right to free speech, and the right to speak about the truth of what happened to her here,” I continued. “The law enforcement of her own pack failed to listen, leaving her no other recourse but to flee her own home. If that makes Eclipse look biased, it’s because Eclipse is biased.”

I looked around, meeting as many eyes as I could and silently daring them to say otherwise. “This isn’t new information,” I reminded them. “Eclipse is notorious for its outdated belief systems, and it has never bothered you before.”

“It has never been this severe before!” Thorne burst out, as if he’d just been waiting for me to pause. “Eclipse’s reputation will lay in ruins! We will be made to look like failures!”

“We are failures,” Elroy’s cold voice cut in. Thorne reared back as if struck, and many others did as well. “Ines sought help from the authorities multiple times, how is it possible that not one of us heard of her struggle?”

The council members exchanged uneasy glances. One of them, a portly man with a shock of white hair, cleared his throat. "We can't be held responsible for information that wasn't passed on to us.”

I felt a surge of anger at their attempt to deflect responsibility. My eyes narrowed as I stepped closer, my voice low and dangerous. "No, I don't believe that's true at all. You've knowingly upheld a status quo that benefits you at the expense of others."

The room fell silent, tension thick in the air. I could feel Elroy's presence behind me, a silent pillar of support.

"For too long," I continued, my voice gaining strength, "victims have either been too afraid to report crimes against them, or when they did, they were ignored. And you," I pointed at each council member in turn, "you allowed this to happen."

I saw fear flicker in their eyes, and it fueled my determination. My heart raced, but not from anxiety – from a sense of righteous purpose.

"This ends now," I declared, my voice ringing with authority. "We won't be doing this anymore. The time for change has come, and it starts right here, right now."

A sense of power filled my body as I stood in front of them, staring them down. The council members, once so imposing, now seemed small and frail, like withered leaves clinging desperately to a dying tree. I could feel the weight of centuries of tradition pressing against me, but I refused to buckle.

"You've had your time," I said, my voice steady and strong. "You've ruled unchallenged for too long, but that era is over."

The eldest council member, a woman with silver hair and piercing green eyes, leaned forward. "You can't simply overturn centuries of tradition, Luna Olivia. Our ways have kept our people safe-"

"Safe?" I interrupted, a bitter laugh escaping my lips. "Tell that to Ines. Tell that to every victim who's been silenced."

I took a deep breath, feeling Elroy's reassuring presence at my back. His unwavering support gave me the final push I needed.

"This is unacceptable and inhumane behavior," I declared, my voice ringing through the chamber, "and it will not be allowed any longer. We are implementing changes right now."

The council erupted into protests, but I raised my hand, silencing them with a look. I could feel the power thrumming through my veins, the mantle of leadership settling firmly on my shoulders. These relics of the past would either adapt or be left behind in the dust of progress.

"The time for discussion is over," I said, my tone brooking no argument. "The time for action is now."