Chapter 267
Chapter 267
Elara’s POV
:
“Sit if you want a voice. Stand if you only plan to whisper.”
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Chairs scraped across the war hall. The banners hung flat. Torches hissed. Cael took the high seat without his crown. Thorne stood at my right, silent. Vessa posted our seven along the walls. Miela stayed locked in the bronze room under double guard. I did not bring her name into this room. I brought a plan.
Alpha Drevan folded thick arms. “You called us at dawn. Speak, Gamma.”
“I am done patching holes,” I said. “We change the shape of the wall.”
Murmurs rolled. Eden set a slate on the table. I did not look at it. I looked at the men who had waited too long to be led.
“I am forming The Gamma Protocol,” I said. “An elite strike network led by women. Not symbolic. Not court pretty. Field ready. My captains will cut, scout, and hold. They will move faster than your councils and hit harder than your habits.”
Garron scoffed. “You want my wolves to take orders from your ladies.”
Vessa’s mouth tipped. “You want your wolves to live.”
Cael’s finger rapped once on the arm of his chair. The room quieted. “Hear the structure,” he said. “Then speak or choke.”
I nodded. “Three wings. Dawn Wing for breach and shock. Dusk Wing for stealth and lift. Night Wing for counters and holds. Vessa commands Dawn. Ilia commands Dusk. Mira commands Night. They report to me. In crisis, Protocol orders outrank pack captains inside the zone of contact. Duration ends when I lift the mark.”
Drevan frowned. “Zone of contact means what.”
“Where the first arrow lands,” I said. “You will know it when you hear the scream and smell the smoke. Your captains can argue after the fire is out.”
A few smiles. Not many. Enough.
Garron jabbed the table. “My men answer to Direstone. They do not swap colors because a Gamma writes a list.”
Thorne’s voice cut calm and clear. “They will when I assign them to her.”
Garron turned. “Alpha.”
Thorne did not waver. “I am done letting pride dig graves.”
Vessa looked at me, then at him, then back to the room. “We will take thirty from each allied pack to train
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Chapter 267
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into the wings. Volunteers first. If volunteers are cowards, I will draft by record. Anyone who cannot keep up goes home. Anyone who breaks discipline sits in the dark for a week.”
Drevan slid a glance to his right hand. “Women only. Why.”
“Because you forgot how to see them,” I said. “Because they pass where your swagger trips alarms. Because when they hit, no one expects it. I am not here to make you feel better. I am here to win.”
Eden lifted the slate. “Targets need mapping.”
“Already mapped,” I said. “Old mines at the ridge. Two forward caches. One false barn outside Fenreach. We will not raid them in a line. We will make them chase ghosts and then we will burn the floor under their feet.”
A young Alpha from the coast spoke up. “And cost.”
“Ration shift,” I said. “Less parade, more protein. New leather for light feet. Quiet blades. We pay now or we pay in sons.”
Cael nodded once. “Approved.”
Garron leaned on his fists. “You are asking for a chain of command that cuts through packs. This council was built to prevent that.”
I met his eyes. “Your council was built to keep men comfortable. I am building a tool to keep families breathing.”
Thorne placed both hands on the table. Not loud. Final. “Direstone assigns a company to Dawn Wing. Full kit. No split loyalties. Garron, write it.”
Garron stared at him. “You choose her mandate over your house.”
“I choose results,” Thorne said. “Write it.”
Quills scratched. The sound cleared my lungs. I turned to the Wyrmshade bench. “Your hunters are light and stubborn. Good. I want ten of them to Dusk Wing. Ilia will break their bad habits and keep the good ones.”
Drevan hesitated. His second nudged his elbow. Drevan grunted. “Ten.”
“Fifteen,” I said. “You just remembered three names you wanted to keep safe. I want them most.”
He swore low. “Fifteen.”
I let the room breathe. Then I tapped the map. “Night Wing holds chokepoints at the west road and the north bridge. If the horn calls three long notes, Night becomes wall. No hero runs. You break formation, you lose rights to speak in this room for a month.”
Mira spoke from the back. She was small and iron. “Night Wing will need the new shields by dusk.”
Cael nodded at Eden. “Pull them from ceremonial stores. Melt the shine. Give them teeth.”
A runner slid through the door, breathless. He stopped at the rail, eyes on me. “Messenger from Fenreach.
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Chapter 267
Urgent.”
“Speak,” I said.
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“Two scouts did not return at dawn. The third crawled in with a broken leg. He says the exiled took a farm and laid signs on the road. They want us to send a search party.”
Drevan cursed. “They want to bait us.”
“Then they will learn to hate the taste,” I said. “Dusk Wing will move first. No banners. No noise. Cut their marks. Lift anything that looks like a trap. Dawn Wing will stage outside the line and hit when Ilia calls it clean.”
Vessa cracked her knuckles. “I want eyes on the barn roof.”
“Take Jace,” I said. “He sees angles other wolves miss.”
Thorne watched me set the pieces. He did not smile. His shoulders dropped a fraction. The room started to feel like a room and not a knife.
A grey–bearded Alpha raised a hand. “What is the risk plan if your wings fail.”
“They will not fail,” Vessa said.
I shook my head. “Answer the fear. If Dusk is spotted, Dawn hits early and loud. If Night breaks, we burn the bridge and flood the road. If all three fail, we fall back to the second ring and take the loss on our feet. We will not scatter.”
Garron exhaled through his teeth. “And the prisoners from last night.”
“Interrogation continues,” I said. “We do not stop moving while we wait for men who like to hear themselves
talk.”
Eden slid a pouch across to me. “Items pulled from their belts. Same crest. Same boot stitch.”
I kept my hands off the leather. I had no time for trophies. “Catalog it in the open. Let every Alpha see the pattern so no one can pretend later.”
A low voice cut from the far end. Orik’s old ally, the one who never looked me in the eyes, spoke for the first time today. “Why should we trust a council led by a Gamma. You were not chosen.”
“I was thrown away and lived,” I said. “That is the only test that matters right now.”
Silence rolled over us. Clean. Honest. It stayed long enough to scrape something out of the floor. Then Thorne’s palm hit the table once.
“Direstone recognizes The Gamma Protocol,” he said. “Elara commands inside the fight. My wolves obey.”
Cael stood. “Blood Moon recognizes The Gamma Protocol. Elara commands inside the fight. All wolves obey.”
Drevan rose slower. “Wyrmshade recognizes The Gamma Protocol. Dusk Wing gets fifteen. I pick five. She
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picks ten.”
“Done,” I said.
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One by one, the rest threw in. Some with heat. Some with sour faces. Some with relief that felt like shame. It did not matter. A signature is a leash and a promise. I would use both.
I lifted my hand. “Then we move. Dusk out first. Dawn shadows. Night locks the ring. No speeches. No drums. No time to miss your bed.”
Quills stopped. Boots rose. Vessa snapped her fingers. The seven peeled off the walls and crossed the floor like water finds its line. Ilia slid a rolled map into her vest. Mira slung two shields and jerked her chin at a boy twice her size to carry a third.
Thorne stayed where he was until the room emptied to half. “You will need more than thirty,” he said.
“I always do,” I said.
He nodded once. “Take my scout captain. Not Garron. The other one.”.
“Justin’s second,” I said.
He did not blink. “He needs a job that is honest.”
“Then he will get one,” I said. “On a short leash.”
Thorne’s mouth moved but did not settle into a shape. “When you break the barn, I want to be on the left.”
“You already are,” I said.
He looked at the door like a man about to walk into rain. “Then say it loud so the hall hears it.”
I turned and lifted my voice. “Direstone runs left wing under my mark.”
The clerks scratched it down. The words turned to record. The record turned to law. The law would turn to action by nightfall.
The runner from Fenreach lingered near the door. He held out a second scrap I had not seen. “There is
more.”
I took it. Two words. Simple. Mean. Blue ribbon tied the fold.
Underbridge, Noon.
Vessa was already moving. “That is too clean.”
“Good,” I said. “We will make it dirty.”
Drevan’s second called from the aisle. “Gamma, what do we tell the elders who fear a woman’s command.”
“Tell them to count,” I said. “If they cannot count, tell them to pray for the ones who can.”
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Cael watched me the way men watch fire when it warms instead of burns. “You have the field.”
“I will bring it back,” I said.
“Or you will bring back pieces,” he said without softness.
“That is also a kind of win,” I said.
Vessa touched my arm. “Dusk is ready.”
“Go,” I said. “Keep your feet and your breath.”
She grinned. “Keep your crown and your temper.”
I almost smiled. Almost. “Move.”
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The hall thinned to leaders and ghosts. The map looked smaller than it had when we walked in. I felt the weight settle into the room we had finally built. Not a court. A council. My council.
Thorne adjusted his bracer and stepped to the door with me. “Order once more,” he said. “Clear.”
“No hero runs,” I said.
He nodded. “No hero runs.”
“Then walk,” I said. “We have an hour to make noon late.”
“Or early,” he said.
“Choose,” I said.
