A leak had not happened often in our family's court. Within our ranks, my father had been ruthless at the end of his life. Any attempt on the royal family was met with a scorched earth policy. We had burned down entire towns over sour wine and meat. So, the thought of such a well-oiled machine housing a leak came as a shock. 

But as the moments ticked by, I thought of Caspian and his supporters and couldn't help but wonder if some had remained once Beta was put to death. There had been rumors of an overthrow, but in the rankings that seemed too tight nit, I struggled to fathom who.

 Most of the upper ranks had some idea of what Alpha and I were up to. I can only imagine it was a religious being, someone who disliked the fact that we were otherwise involved with each other. Perhaps someone who didn't appreciate their leader sampling the locals. 

We frequently smelled of one another and indulged in behavior that wasn't appreciated, but to kill us over it?

 Was Alpha the target at all?

 What if I was supposed to die, but Taryek couldn't help himself? 

"A leak?" I managed, straining against my ropes once more, considering freezing them off if I thought it wouldn't be seen as an assault in the emotionally charged court. The best place for me was to sit here, in this uncomfortable chair, at the mercy of my peers, for it was beginning to look like I was innocent. 

Haryek shrugs, "Politics." He dismisses it so quickly as if I should be well-versed in such atrocities. My father had ruled this area for over one hundred years, and few would outwardly betray him. "There's always a power struggle, sweet Nicolas. The haves and the have-nots... always someone who doesn't quite belong, looks like you thought that was you, but someone else was coveting the leadership role."

Loan quickly descends with his companion, joining Haryek and me. "I think it's becoming clear who should be on trial," he says defiantly, standing beside me. 

I didn't want to be trapped at their mercy if it came to a fight. The men on the throne's steps weren't my only enemies, and the tension was mounting. I grip the bonds, charging them with permafrost, preparing myself in case they decided their move was best made publically. Would any lycan honestly care if I was executed here and now? There would be no justice; Sota was merely trying to make it look like this was a mutual decision. 

Sota scoffs at us. 

"You honestly believe we would set up our leader?" He demands with an ounce of hysteria that gives me pause. "That is outrageous. Do not turn this around on us; we aren't the ones on trial here. These webs you weave are exactly why you can't be trusted: an incubus, a vile warlock who bewitched our late leader. This is why we should return to our ways, leave behind this fantasy dream of peace, and reclaim our freedom as our gods intended." 

At that moment, the white-haired man shows his hand. 

I wasn't supposed to return from that meeting. I wasn't supposed to be here. 

"You weren't trying to kill him. Were you, Sota?" I murmur, feeling the ropes fall away from my wrists. 

Taryek would have no reason to honor a truce; it would have been just too tempting to let Alpha walk away when he was so quick to defend me. The thought had crossed my mind, but this conversation only confirmed it: "Alpha got in the way." 

Pain rushes into my chest, I feel hot as if my skin were on fire, and my throat threatens to choke me while rage boils to the surface. I watch the one-armed leader recoil, setting my jaw in defiance. A child with his hand caught in the jar of sweets, a stark overreaction to such an accusation, was all the proof I needed. 

"The nerve!" Sota snaps, showing his teeth. "Do you see, brothers? This! This is why we must fend for ourselves. They side with themselves; they won't listen to reason! They are turning on us, separating us one by one until we are at each other's throats! Do not let this heathen poison your trust in the upper ranks! Think of the depravity he bewitched our leader with, decimating age-old ties and effectively destroying the bonds of the upper ranks. 

It is he who cast our devoted Beta into the pyre and turned the Alpha on his closest friend. He who brought Prince Haryek into the fold, creating mass confusion in our path. We should stick to what is safe, to what we know, and that is each other." 

A desperate man, caught in his actions, would quickly double down on my sins. 

Sota sent the guard. He wanted me out of the picture, and when I reappeared, it hadn't given him enough time to form his plan and blame it on me entirely. Verando might have been easier to convince; perhaps he would have felt little remorse for my death and moved on simply because it was what he had to do. 

I had always known Sota had tolerated me. He had repeatedly admitted that he had hoped I was a passing fling and that Alpha would tire of me. The little flickering ember in my heart snuffs out, broken, shattered, at the realization that Sota wouldn't have tried to get rid of me if Alpha truly had felt nothing for me.

My body begins to shake as the pieces fall into place, and my eyes burn, for I feel foolish for having fallen for this hoax. 

"The ambush." I breathe, moving my hands to my sides as I stand, snapping free of my frozen bonds.

 "You set up the ambush. You put me on Alpha's wolf, knowing it was feral. You knew he wouldn't listen! You knew he would get too far ahead..." My body feels as though it's made of stone, my hands chilling beyond my limits, beginning to grow numb while my body races to catch up to my galloping heart and mind. "Alpha and I were the first ones to get shot-" 

Sota snarls at me, interrupting my train of thought in the echo chamber of the hall, "Do not blame your inability to run with our kind on me! Your father couldn't control us, and neither could you! That wolf should have killed you the second you were out of range!" 

His eyes widen- it's all the validation that I need. 

Sota set us up. 

Sota has been in the background, poisoning us from within all along. 

Alpha's wolf was supposed to kill me. 

Fleet. 

Swift. 

Delta. 

I rest my palm on my temple, flinching from the discomfort of my artic touch on my clammy skin. Another tear rolls down my cheek, and my hand slides up to tangle in my hair, unable to fathom that the man I... loved... was dead for little reason other than convenience. 

I should have died, that he saved me, and I didn't even get to thank him.

"You sold out your pack to kill me." I allow through gritted teeth. "How many have died because of your selfishness? How could you- he looked up to you like a father! He cherished the ground you walked on, and you-" My body begins to shake, unable to control the reaction.

"What have you done?" Adriam snarls, directing his rage to the elder.

"He's turning us from slaves into guard dogs! We do not need an alliance; we shall not protect their people! They fucked up their world; it is not our job to fix or defend it. He was costing us precious time that we did not have! He was poisoning our Alpha! He's a bloody queer!" Sota roars to a numb crowd, a group of people who loved their leader.

The actual offense bludgeons my tolerance. 

Alpha has said our sexuality was not accepted; I didn't think it might have caused his murder. Frankly, he'd been too open for me to believe it was an issue. The way he kissed me with little hesitation, the way his mouth comfortably molded to mine, and his hands confidently explored my body, he had never been timid like someone who was living in shame.

There was room for deception and war games, but god forbid someone lay with another of the same sex.

"Laying with a man. A true disgrace to your people. The best they can send, and it's a bloody queer." Taryek's words burn me. 

The blur of Adriam's swing causes me to blink as Sota steps backward, his hand clutching his jaw and his cheek reddening. Victor's hand rests on the older man's shoulder. 

"I'm a bloody queer, too!" Adriam moves to punch him again, but Frost grabs the feisty Frenchman from behind. "Kill me, Sota! Where is my judgment?!" 

Frost tightens his grip as Adriam struggles to break free. It occurs to me that the only reason Frost could hold him was that Adriam deemed it so; the tiny man was much more vicious than he'd let on.

"No need to fight you. Can always fight me. I need a good laugh." Victor's voice carries a dark tone.

 Sota shoves away from the Russian and descends the steps. He turns his back to me, facing the appalled upper ranks. 

"Someone had to make the sacrifice! Someone had to make the call, and I'm okay with it being me! Our Alpha was being corrupted; our way of life was being corrupted! I want to see us free; I want to see us back in our homes and not forced into a life protecting those who originally enslaved us!" He's shouting now, desperate, realizing that his rope is ending quickly. 

He felt so little remorse that it almost hurt worse than him being willing to allow my death for a crime that I didn't commit. Knowing that I cared for this man and he cared for me, it seemed even more cruel that Sota would allow my death to come by such terms. He was not sorry; we were all expendable, and it had become painfully apparent to everyone who laid witness. 

Sota felt this was a worthy sacrifice.

Victor poises to pounce, but I'm quicker. I'm behind Sota as I grab his outstretched hand. My vision feels dark, and my heart throbs erratically in my chest. "That wasn't your sacrifice to make," I surge my energy into my hand. 

Sota stiffens as if I'm electrocuting him, unable to move as his whole body spasms.

 "Do you know what's interesting about controlling the weather? It means I also control water. Did you know the human body is over sixty percent water? I'm sure that number translates to lycans." His fingertips start to turn black as magic seeps from my fingertips, an artic ink eager to snuff out any warmth. "I could just pull all the water out of your body, in theory. Make a nice little cloud of your essence. But I like this better."

 Sota bares his teeth at me, and it feels like someone else is talking. It felt like watching the events unfold through someone else's eyes. I'm hurting and agonized, and all I want at this moment is to see him suffer.

"What are you doing to me?!" He writhes as the black stretches up his fingers into his hand, creaking and popping as his skin gives away to the ice. Inch by inch, quicker with every breath, the cold begins to encase him, ice sliding up to his shoulder as it outpaces the frost.

"Does it hurt? It really should because I'm crystalizing your insides. Frostbites a real bitch, isn't it?" 

I can't control it. I want to hurt him and hear him scream. I surge my energy as I watch the inky black veins creep up his arm. He didn't cry out, to my disappointment, but I was no stranger to pain. The look in his eyes fed me, satisfying me; gritting my teeth, I wanted him to give me one groan of discomfort, for maybe he would know an ounce of my pain.

Haryek jerks back his lightly scalded hand. I glance at him from the corner of my eye. Did he touch me?

 Loan touches me this time, and I feel the pushback, an experienced maneuver to push magic back into the body and cut off the flow. "Nicolas. Stop." 

His voice reaches me, causing me to glare at him, a wild animal caught in an excruciating snare of hatred for this being. I'm always the one who has to stop, who takes the brunt, who is the last one to get an apology. 

"He's an asshole, but this isn't you. Besides, I don't want to have to try and sweep his dusty remains out of the grout in this marble. You don't have servants anymore, and it'd take years to get the smell out."

 Loan's voice breaks my concentration. 

With a painful exhale through my teeth, I unhinged my fingers from the man's skin and allowed myself to collapse backward into Loan's arms.

 Sota sags, those yellow eyes never leaving my own. 

I promised him, willing him to feel my malice, that I would take his life for what he'd done. Burning it into my memory as well as his own, carved in my very bones, I'd kill this man.

Briefly, fear flashes across his face, for they did fear me in some instance or another. I was the progeny of the one who'd enslaved them. He's destroyed their life, and I had more than enough reason to attempt to do it again. 

"You sick bastard! Do you see, brothers? Do you see what they do to those who don't fall in line?!" 

"Better not let that arm hit the ground, or you'll be Ol' No Arms." I seeth. 

There is no time for rebuttal; Victor crosses the floor to grip Sota by the shirt. I watch his back as he's escorted away, only now feeling the intensity with which I'm shaking. I'm on the edge of hyperventilating, my chest heaving, my skin covered in a thin layer of sweat as I realize Loan is the only thing keeping me on my feet. My body was about to give out; the magic had used to last of my reserves.

Adriam approaches me, and I'm prepared for the mental assault, but instead, he throws his arms around my neck. If he was going to kill me here and now, I could accept the reasoning behind it, but I wasn't sure if I could allow it. Not knowing the truth, not with the knowledge that I was supposed to die. 

It would be merciful after what I'd been through, but I wasn't done yet. I would see this through; I would avenge us.

"I'm sorry." His voice is small against my collarbone; he mirrors my pain, and I shut my eyes tightly as I wrap my arms around him. Careful to keep my hand from touching him, I squeeze him impossibly close, needing the warmth of his body to bring some life back into my tattered core. "Gods, Nicolas, I'm so fucking sorry. I should never have.. how will you ever forgive me for accusing you?"

"You did what you thought was right." I managed, weakening my hold on him, for my mind trailed elsewhere. I was eager and driven; I wanted to leave right now if we had the means. Even if it killed me, Sota had achieved one thing in his treason, and that was he had motivated me in the cruelest of ways to join this war.