Kai seated his Queen first, his hand lingering a moment at the small of her back, then took his place next to her. The silence that enveloped the throne hall was forged of steel, sharp, rigid, and ready to snap.
"Bring them in," the Alpha King commanded, his voice cutting through the stillness like a force of authority.
The doors groaned open, and the guards ushered in the four Gamma warriors. Their Alpha's faces were etched with creased brows and clenched jaws, the mark of dishonor weighing heavy on their nerves. These four Gammas had brought disgrace upon their packs, brawling with each other when they'd been explicitly ordered not to.
The four warriors strode forward, broad-shouldered and silent, until they reached the base of the platform. There, they dropped to their knees before the throne, heads bowed in shame.
The air thickened, a volatile mix of tension and humiliation as if the stone walls themselves recoiled from their presence. A reckoning was coming, a harsh one.
