My gaze turned to ice as I met her stare directly.
"You've spoken true. I will bring this before the Council."
"You forced entry into my birth pack's den—that's a ward breach, a violation of territorial sanctity!"
"You threatened and coerced me to surrender my Moonblessing token—that constitutes forcible resource seizure!"
I pointed at the matriarch, my voice unyielding as forged steel.
"You struck my mother and left her lying unconscious—you've committed assault against a pack elder!"
The healer-den corridor fell utterly silent.
No one had expected me to bare my fangs so fiercely.
Morwenna stamped her foot in rage.
"Insolence! A mated Omega daring to bring charges against her bond-mother!"
She shoved Kael forward.
"Discipline her properly! Show her what pack hierarchy means!"
Kael remained motionless, only watching me with uncertain eyes.
I raised my speaking-stone, still capturing every moment.
"Lay a claw on me, and I summon the Territory Wardens!"
Morwenna's face twisted into something monstrous.
"I've seen sixty winters and more—let the Wardens come! I don't fear them!"
She lunged toward me, claws extending.
The healer attendants sensed the danger and rushed out immediately.
"Silence! Or we'll call the den guards!"
"If you're not immediate blood-kin, leave this place at once!"
Morwenna halted her advance, wrinkling her nose in disgust.
"We never should have set paw in this healer-den. What foul fortune!"
She turned and gestured to the others.
"We're leaving, all of us..."
Kael released a heavy sigh, disappointment plain in his amber eyes.
"Lyra, we're supposed to be pack. How can you be so cold-hearted?"
Cold-hearted?
They had certainly taught me a lesson today.
What true cold-heartedness looked like.
After the Stormhart wolves departed, I ended the recording on my speaking-stone.
My father's face was drawn with worry.
"Daughter, what are we going to do? Your mother and I have some tokens saved—enough for perhaps ten thousand to cover the initial healer's bond, but the ongoing treatments... that's another matter entirely."
I placed my hand on my father's shoulder.
"Father, leave this to me. I've already found a way."
Garrick looked at me with questioning eyes but asked nothing more.
I went first to pay the healer's deposit.
Three hours later, the glow-stones outside the treatment chamber finally dimmed.
The healer emerged from the treatment chamber.