Chapter 8 - The Night Dashiell Lost His Crown
“The Warden bloodline doesn't die.”
Kiara said it as soon as the stone doors sealed.
Dashiell looked at her.
“What?”
“The prophecy.”
She grabbed his hand.
“Elena showed me the rest.”
Bianca stared.
“Showed you how?”
“Blood memory.”
Tomas moved closer.
“What did it say?”
Kiara repeated the words exactly as they burned inside her mind.
“When Crown and Warden wake together, one will end the other, and the throne will fall. Joined by command, Crown consumes Warden. Joined by choice, Warden ends Crown.”
Dashiell frowned.
Kiara continued.
“Your bloodline doesn't disappear.”
“The Crown does.”
Tomas understood first.
“The power.”
“Yes.”
If Crown and Warden chose each other freely, Kiara would lose the ability to dominate packs.
The ancient Crownline would end with her.
Bianca exhaled.
“So nobody dies.”
“Not because of the bond.”
Dashiell looked relieved for exactly one second.
Then he became suspicious.
“What happens to you?”
Kiara hesitated.
He saw it.
“What happens?”
“I don't know.”
“Kiara.”
“Elena didn't know either.”
“That is not reassuring.”
Before they could continue, chanting began overhead.
The pack leaders.
Lucian was starting early.
Tomas checked the time.
11:14.
“He's forcing the council vote.”
“What vote?” Kiara asked.
Dashiell looked grim.
“If enough Alphas recognize him as High King, he can invoke ancient law before midnight.”
Bianca stared at him.
“You abolished High Crown recognition when you took control.”
“I suspended it.”
“Why not abolish it?”
“Because half the council threatened civil war.”
Kiara looked at Dashiell.
“So you're not actually King.”
“No.”
“People call you Alpha King.”
“Media.”
“That's annoyingly human.”
“Yes.”
They reached the main chapel through a side stairwell.
More than fifty wolves filled the pews.
Pack leaders stood at the front.
Lucian occupied the central platform.
Elena knelt beside him.
A silver chain circled her wrists.
Sophie and the families were already escaping underground.
That gave Kiara one advantage.
Lucian did not know his leverage was mostly gone.
Dashiell entered first.
The room reacted.
Some bowed.
Others did not.
Lucian smiled.
“The Warden lives.”
“Disappointed?”
“Temporarily.”
Then Tomas walked in.
The reaction became chaos.
Several older wolves shouted his name.
One woman crossed herself.
Another Alpha whispered:
“Tomas Garcia is dead.”
Lucian spread his hands.
“And yet here stands the liar your current Alpha King inherited his authority from.”
Dashiell looked at the gathered leaders.
“My father faked his death.”
Murmurs.
“He did it while investigating the Hollow Crown.”
More murmurs.
Lucian laughed.
“Tell them the rest.”
Dashiell did not hide.
“He allowed everyone, including me, to believe he was dead.”
A council elder stepped forward.
“Then your succession was invalid.”
Bianca whispered, “Here we go.”
Dashiell remained calm.
“Under old law, yes.”
Lucian smiled.
“Which means Dashiell Garcia has never legally been High Alpha.”
The room erupted.
Kiara watched Dashiell.
He did not defend the title.
That surprised Lucian.
“So take it,” Dashiell said.
Silence.
Lucian frowned.
“What?”
“The title.”
Dashiell removed the black signet ring from his finger.
The Garcia Alpha seal.
He placed it on the altar.
“You want a chair, Lucian?”
He looked around.
“Take the chair.”
Several Alphas stared.
Dashiell continued.
“I have spent twelve years preventing pack wars because people like you think titles matter more than lives.”
His gaze moved through the crowd.
“Tonight, families were kidnapped because Lucian wanted power.”
Lucian's smile disappeared.
“He experimented on women. He held Elena Garcia prisoner for six years. He abducted a twelve-year-old girl.”
A female Alpha stood.
“Proof?”
Kiara stepped forward.
“I have it.”
Lucian looked at her.
“There she is.”
Kiara ignored him.
She held up the patient ledger.
“Thirty-four names.”
She began reading.
One by one.
At the seventh name, a wolf in the front row began crying.
“My sister.”
Lucian's face changed.
Kiara kept reading.
At the twelfth, another Alpha stood.
“That woman disappeared nine years ago.”
At the nineteenth, the room turned.
Not completely.
But enough.
Lucian lifted a hand.
“You trust paper carried by a human?”
Kiara looked at him.
“Mostly human.”
A few people murmured.
Lucian's eyes hardened.
Kiara continued.
“And you know exactly what I am.”
He stepped down from the platform.
“So do they.”
He addressed the room.
“Crownline.”
Fear moved through the gathered wolves.
Some stepped back from Kiara.
Lucian smiled.
“Ask yourselves why the Garcia family hid her.”
Dashiell answered.
“To protect her.”
“Or protect themselves.”
Lucian looked at the council.
“She can command you with one word.”
Kiara felt their fear.
It would have been easy to prove him wrong by promising never to use the power.
But promises were weak.
So she did something else.
She walked to the altar.
Picked up Dashiell's Alpha ring.
And crushed it beneath the silver ceremonial hammer.
Gasps filled the church.
Dashiell stared.
Kiara looked at the Alphas.
“I don't want a crown.”
She hit the ring again.
Metal bent.
“I don't want your obedience.”
Again.
The symbol split.
“And I don't want any law that says blood makes one person worth more than another.”
Lucian stepped toward her.
“You have no idea what you're destroying.”
“I audit systems.”
She looked at him.
“Destroying bad ones is practically a hobby.”
Bianca snorted.
Dashiell almost smiled.
Lucian did not.
The council began arguing.
Then one Alpha approached Dashiell.
“If Tomas lives, the Garcia seat belongs to him.”
Dashiell looked at his father.
Tomas surprised everyone.
“No.”
He removed an old ring from beneath his shirt.
His original Alpha seal.
“I forfeited the right twelve years ago.”
He placed it beside the broken ring.
“The Garcia seat is vacant.”
Chaos.
Lucian shouted over it.
“Then by ancient law, the strongest Alpha may claim it.”
Dashiell looked bored.
“You planning to arm wrestle?”
Lucian's eyes flashed.
“No.”
He drew a knife.
“I challenge.”
The room went silent.
An Alpha challenge.
Old law.
Blood law.
Dashiell had no title.
But he was still Warden.
Still Garcia.
Still terrifying.
He removed his jacket.
Kiara grabbed his arm.
“You were shot.”
“I noticed.”
“You died today.”
“Also noticed.”
Lucian smiled.
“Afraid for him?”
“Yes.”
Kiara said it without shame.
Dashiell looked at her.
Lucian's expression darkened.
Kiara leaned closer to Dashiell.
“You don't have to prove anything.”
“I know.”
“Then don't fight him.”
Dashiell looked at Lucian.
“He isn't challenging me for the title.”
“What?”
“He wants my blood on the altar.”
Tomas swore.
The ritual.
Lucian needed Warden blood.
If Dashiell fought, Lucian could complete the ceremony regardless of who won.
Dashiell stepped back.
“I decline.”
The council erupted again.
Lucian laughed.
“Coward.”
“No.”
Dashiell looked at him.
“Accountant's boyfriend.”
Kiara stared.
Bianca made a strangled sound.
Even in the middle of disaster, Dashiell had said boyfriend.
Lucian's smile vanished.
Then he moved faster than anyone expected.
Not toward Dashiell.
Toward Kiara.
The knife cut her palm.
Blood hit the altar.
Dashiell lunged.
Lucian drove a second blade into Dashiell's shoulder.
Warden blood sprayed beside hers.
The altar ignited.
Every door slammed.
The ancient symbols carved into the floor blazed red.
Lucian smiled.
“You should have fought me.”
Kiara felt something seize her bones.
Her power exploded outward.
Every wolf in the room dropped to one knee.
Including Dashiell.
Including Bianca.
Including Tomas.
Lucian alone remained standing.
Immune.
He stepped onto the altar beside Kiara.
“Crown blood.”
He touched her face.
“Warden blood.”
May you like
Then he smiled down at the kneeling packs.
“All we're missing is a king.”
