Raymond struggled briefly, but he wasn’t prepared for a direct confrontation with a guardian in his prime.Quinton guided him back to his chair with the kind of strength that brooked no argument.
The chamber fell silent except for Stephanie’s quiet crying and the sound of Raymond’s labored breathing.
The sentence,Malcolm said,will be pronounced in front of the entirety of the Sunburst Pack in one hour.
CHAPTER 28
THE EMERGENCY PACK MEETINGconvened in the main hall.
Nadine sat beside Conall near the front, cataloging the tension that crackled through the room like electricity before a storm.
Pack members filed in, their expressions ranging from confusion to indignation to outright fury.No one had expected to be summoned at this hour, and the urgency in Malcolm’s and Larissa’s voices during the emergency calls had left everyone on edge.
Stephanie Gonzales entered with her usual quiet dignity, her silver hair gleaming under the lights, but Nadine noted the way the older woman’s eyes swept the room with unusual wariness.
Malcolm’s expression was grimmer than Nadine had ever seen it, and beside him, Larissa’s usual composure seemed strained.
Before we begin,Larissa said,I need to make an announcement.Robert Mitchell, who was arrested yesterday on suspicion of treason against the pack, is being released immediately.
The room erupted in confused murmurs.Robert Mitchell had seemed like an open-and-shut case of betrayal.
New information has come to light,Malcolm continued, his voice cutting through the noise.Information that exonerates Robert.
The real traitor,Larissa said, her words dropping heavily into the sudden silence,confessed to the council a little more than an hour ago.
Malcolm’s expression softened with something that might have been compassion as his gaze found Stephanie.Raymond Gonzales.
That’s impossible,Theo Kurtz said, his voice cracking with disbelief.
Beside him, Una’s brother, Dante, nodded.Yeah.Raymond’s been on the pack council forever.He trained half of us, taught us to track, to—
He’s been feeding intelligence to Gregory Torrance for months,Malcolm said, his voice dark with regret.Security protocols, leadership discussions, operational schedules.Everything Gregory needed to plan his attacks on other packs.
Nadine watched Stephanie’s face crumple, watched forty years of trust and love destroyed beyond repair.
The analytical part of her mind—the part Gregory had trained to observe and catalog—noted how betrayal of this magnitude didn’t just destroy the present; it unraveled the entire past, making every shared memory suspect.
Larissa moved to the older woman, her authority softening into compassion as she continued explaining the betrayal to the rest of the pack.He believed pack democracy was making shifters weak.Gregory convinced him that authoritarian leadership was necessary for species survival.
The same psychological manipulation Gregory had used on Nadine for years, turned against a pack member who’d trusted his community’s acceptance of diverse perspectives.Fear disguised as pragmatism, authoritarianism presented as necessary protection.
Raymond genuinely believed he was protecting the pack,Malcolm continued.Gregory told him whatever he needed to hear to make betraying his family seem like patriotic duty.
He gestured, and two guards marched Raymond into the room, his hands cuffed behind his back with silver chains.
At the sight of her husband, Stephanie’s composure finally shattered completely.The woman who had weathered Vincent’s brutal regime, who had helped guide the pack through its transition to democratic leadership, who had been a pillar of strength for everyone around her, sagged in her chair with the weight of absolute loss.
Una rushed to Stephanie’s side immediately, wrapping her arms around the older woman as Sarah joined them.Both women offered what comfort they could to someone whose entire world had just collapsed.
Your punishment, Raymond,Malcolm said,is banishment fromallpack territories.You will be stripped of pack protection, forbidden from entering any shifter community, and marked as a traitor to our species.
Malcolm’s voice carried both finality and regret.This wasn’t vengeance, Nadine realized.This was justice, measured and deliberate.
Larissa’s addition cut deeper.Furthermore, given the scope of his betrayal and the danger you represent to other packs, if you are found in any shifter territory after today, the sentence will be death.
Around the chamber, pack members stared with expressions ranging from fury to heartbreak.Someone beloved, someone who had been part of their lives since childhood, had been secretly working to destroy them.
As the guards escorted Raymond from the building—a broken man facing exile from everything that had given his life meaning—Nadine felt how close they’d all come to disaster.
