At sunrise, two guards unlocked the bridal suite.
"The council wants you downstairs," the taller one said.
"I want to see my father first."
"Not authorized."
I kept the incriminating transfer folded against my ribs beneath the boned lining of my wedding dress. "Then tell the council I refuse to attend until I am allowed legal access to the accused Beta."
The guard almost smiled. "You are in no position to refuse anything."
He was right about one thing: I could not win by staying behind a locked door.
I followed them.
The Alpha estate had been transformed overnight from a wedding venue into a tribunal. White flowers still climbed the banisters, but armed warriors stood at every archway. Staff stripped ribbons from the chandeliers while elders gathered around the long breakfast table.
My official Luna chair stood at Nikolai's left.
Bianca was sitting in it.
She wore a high-necked cream dress that covered most of her old burn scars. Nikolai sat beside her, reading a council brief while she poured tea into his cup as if they had done it every morning for years.
I stopped at the threshold.
Elder Torin, the oldest member of the council, glanced from Bianca to me. "Alpha, the Luna's chair belongs to your marked mate."
Nikolai did not look up. "Elara can sit at the other end."
A few elders shifted uncomfortably.
Bianca touched his wrist. "I can move. I don't want Elara to feel displaced."
The performance was almost elegant.
"Stay," Nikolai said.
I walked to the empty chair opposite him and sat without lowering my head.
"Where is my father?" I asked.
Nikolai closed the brief. "Alive."
"That was not my question."
"East barracks. Lower cells."
"Has he been examined by a healer?"
"He is not a patient."
"He was beaten before he was detained. I saw his blood on the evidence."
Elder Torin watched me carefully.
"The accused Beta will be medically assessed before formal sentencing," Torin said.
"Before sentencing? Not before questioning?"
Nikolai's fingers tightened around his cup. "Do not turn this into theater."
"I am not the one who put another woman in the Luna's seat the morning after my wedding."
Silence landed across the table.
Bianca's eyes glistened on command. "I only sat where Nikolai asked me to sit."
"Of course you did."
Nikolai stood. His chair scraped back. "Enough."
I pulled the folded transfer from my dress and placed it on the table.
"Then explain this."
He looked down.
"Two million dollars," I said. "Dated October fourteenth. Authorized under my father's code and acknowledged by Darius Thorne."
Bianca went very still.
I pointed to the date. "My father was intubated in the pack infirmary that entire week. He was sedated. The medical logs will prove it."
Nikolai picked up the sheet.
For the first time since the wedding, uncertainty crossed his face.
Bianca recovered quickly. "Darius often received transfers on behalf of pack vendors. That proves nothing."
"Then you will not mind opening his accounts."
Her gaze sharpened.
"My brother is away negotiating trade agreements," she said. "You cannot accuse him because you are desperate to save your father."
"I can accuse anyone whose signature appears on evidence used to condemn mine."
Nikolai turned the paper over. "Where did you get this?"
"You threw it at me."
A muscle moved in his cheek.
Elder Torin held out a hand. "Let me see it."
Nikolai hesitated before passing it over.
Torin studied the transfer. "The authorization code could have been entered remotely. We need the source ledger and the infirmary admission record."
"Exactly," I said.
Bianca's fingers tightened around the handle of the teapot.
Nikolai noticed. I saw him notice.
Then Bianca coughed.
Once. Twice. By the third cough, she was bent over, one hand pressed dramatically to her ribs.
Nikolai abandoned the document at once.
"Bianca?"
"I'm fine." She gasped the words. "The smoke damage acts up when I get upset."
"Get the healer."
A servant hurried out.
I stared at him. "She coughs and suddenly the evidence no longer matters?"
"Her lungs were permanently damaged in the fire your father caused."
"You do not know that he caused it."
"I know enough."
"No. You chose enough."
His eyes flashed gold.
The Alpha pressure rolled across the room, pushing several servants into instinctive submission. I stayed upright even as the mate bond shuddered under the command.
"At noon," Nikolai said, "the pack will gather in the ceremonial hall. You will appear beside me for the formal Luna acknowledgment."
I almost laughed. "You locked me up, gave my chair away, and now you want me to stand beside you for appearances?"
"The pack does not need to know the extent of our private dispute while the council investigates your father."
"So I am a traitor's daughter in private and your Luna in public."
"You are whatever keeps this pack stable."
That sentence told me more about our marriage than any vow had.
I rose from the table.
"I will attend on one condition."
"You are still pretending you have conditions?"
"I see my father afterward."
Nikolai's mouth hardened.
Elder Torin spoke before he could refuse. "The request is reasonable. The accused Beta should be permitted one supervised family visit before the formal hearing."
Nikolai looked at Bianca, then at the transfer bearing Darius's name.
"Ten minutes," he said. "After the ceremony."
It was the first thing I had won since the wedding.
As the guards escorted me upstairs to change, Bianca passed close enough that her shoulder brushed mine.
"You should have stayed quiet," she whispered.
I stopped.
Her expression remained sweet for the watching servants.
"Why?" I whispered back. "Because Darius made a mistake?"
Her smile vanished for one heartbeat.
That was all the confirmation I needed.
At eleven fifty, the same guards returned to my room. One carried a folded silver sash, the ceremonial mark of the Luna.
"Alpha's orders," he said. "You stand beside him until the blessing ends."
I took the sash.
Downstairs, the bells of the ceremonial hall began to ring.
And somewhere beneath the east barracks, my father was waiting for the ten minutes I had just forced Nikolai to give me.
