Chapter 347

• Third Person’s POV
• The council chamber of the neutral grounds was steeped in tension, every stone carrying the weight of centuries of bloodshed between the East and the West. Torches guttered along the walls, their flames flickering in the draft, casting sharp shadows across the long oak table where two Alphas sat facing one another.
• Lucien of the East, his posture sharp as a drawn blade, eyes burning with the cold restraint of a wolf barely holding back his fury. Aedric Stormbane of the West, his jaw locked, shoulders broad, and aura heavy as a thunderstorm. Between them, Professor Maeryn stood like the spine of the moon itself—old, unyielding, and strangely calm.