The tribunal summons came three days after the rejection.
I was in the dispensary sorting dried valerian root when a Delta I didn't know appeared in the doorway. He didn't knock. "Beta Hargrove requires your presence. Now."
Dr. Maren looked up from her workbench, her hands still wrapped around a mortar and pestle. She didn't say anything. Just watched me with those sharp eyes as I set down the valerian and followed the Delta out.
The tribunal room was in the administrative wing of the pack house—a space I'd only seen twice before, both times from the back row during mandatory pack assemblies. Now I stood alone in the center, facing a raised platform where Beta Hargrove sat flanked by two Gammas. The room smelled like old wood and dominance displays. Around the edges, maybe twenty pack members had gathered to watch. I recognized some faces. Most wouldn't meet my eyes.
Beta Hargrove didn't waste time on preamble. "Three pack members fell ill this morning after consuming food from the communal kitchen. Preliminary investigation indicates wolfsbane contamination."
My stomach dropped, but I kept my face still.
"You are a healer's apprentice," he continued, his voice carrying that particular flat authority that packed wolves learn to recognize as non-negotiable. "You have access to wolfsbane stores. We searched your supply kit."
One of the Gammas produced a small leather pouch—my kit, the one I kept in the dispensary for legitimate medicinal preparations. He opened it and held up a vial. Even from where I stood, I could smell the bitter undertone.
Wolfsbane. In my kit.
"This is not mine," I said quietly.
Beta Hargrove's expression didn't shift. "The evidence suggests otherwise."
"The contamination pattern is wrong." I kept my voice level, clinical. "Wolfsbane for medicinal use is processed differently than raw plant material. The scent profile doesn't match my supplies. If you test—"
"We are not interested," Beta Hargrove cut me off, "in a wolfless apprentice's analysis of evidence."
The room went very quiet.
I pressed my fingertips against my thigh, a grounding gesture I'd learned years ago. My bond mark was still cold. My wolf was still silent. I was alone in this room in every way that mattered.
"Charley Whitmore," Beta Hargrove said formally, "you are hereby suspended from all healing duties pending further investigation. You will not enter the dispensary, handle any medicinal supplies, or participate in pack health services. One further incident, and you will be exiled as a rogue. Do you understand?"
"I understand," I said.
I didn't add that I also understood who had planted the wolfsbane. I didn't point out that Elle Hargrove had access to the dispensary through her father's authority, or that the timing—three days after the rejection—was deliberate. None of that would matter here.
Beta Hargrove dismissed me with a wave.
I turned to leave and caught Dr. Maren's gaze from the back of the room. She was standing near the door, her weathered face unreadable. Our eyes met for exactly two seconds. Then she glanced down at the small notebook she always carried, then back at me.
*Document everything.*
I walked out.
---
The mandatory pack banquet that evening was held in the great hall—long tables, roasted meat, the kind of enforced communal gathering that reminded lower-ranked wolves exactly where they stood. I attended because not attending would have been noted. I sat at the far end of the Omega table, near the kitchen entrance, and kept my head down.
Elle Hargrove sat three tables over, surrounded by ranked wolves, laughing at something Colby said. I didn't look at them directly. I didn't need to. I could feel the weight of their presence the way you feel a storm building.
Halfway through the meal, Elle stood and walked toward the serving station where Sable—a burn-scarred Omega waitress—was ladling stew into bowls. I watched from the corner of my eye as Elle reached for a ladle, her movements casual, and then pivoted sharply. The ladle tipped. Boiling stew splashed across Sable's forearm.
Sable gasped and dropped the bowl. It shattered.
Elle stepped back with exaggerated surprise. "Oh, how clumsy," she said, loud enough for nearby tables to hear. "You should be more careful."
No one at the ranked tables reacted. A few wolves glanced over, registered what had happened, and went back to their conversations. Sable stood there clutching her burned arm, her face blank in the way Omegas learn to make their faces when showing pain would only make things worse.
I counted to three.
Then I stood and followed Sable as she slipped into the back corridor.
She was leaning against the wall near the kitchen storage room, breathing hard, her burned arm cradled against her chest. When she saw me, she straightened immediately. "I'm fine."
"Let me see it," I said quietly.
She hesitated, then extended her arm. The burn was bad—second degree, blistering already forming. I pulled the small personal kit I'd kept in my pocket—supplies I'd purchased with my own savings, kept separate from the dispensary stock—and knelt beside her.
I worked quickly. Cleaned the burn. Applied a rare healing salve I'd been saving. Wrapped it carefully. Around us, I was aware of other Omega kitchen workers pausing in their tasks, watching from doorways. I didn't acknowledge them. I just focused on Sable's arm, my hands steady.
When I finished, Sable gripped my wrist. She didn't say anything. Her eyes said enough.
I packed up my kit and stood. As I turned to leave, something shifted inside my chest.
It wasn't an awakening. It was smaller than that. A flicker. A pressure behind my sternum, like an ember that had been cold for three days suddenly refusing to go out. It came with a surge of fury so clean and cold it felt almost like clarity.
I pressed my hand flat against my chest, startled.
My wolf. Not awake. Not speaking. But *there*. A tiny, burning presence that had been completely silent since the rejection.
I didn't suppress it. I didn't panic. I just let it sit there, small and fierce, and walked back toward the healer's quarters with my jaw set and my hand still pressed against my chest.
Behind me, I heard the banquet continuing. Laughter. Conversation. The sounds of wolves who belonged.
I didn't belong anymore.
But something inside me had just woken up enough to be furious about it.
