POV: Damian
The central plaza of the Blackwood manor, a space built to showcase the strength and unity of my clan, had become a courtroom. Hundreds of my people stood in a vast, silent circle, their faces a mixture of confusion, fear, and grim anticipation. They had been summoned by their Alpha, but the man who stood before them on the steps of the great hall was a stranger—a hollow-eyed king presiding over the ruins of his own soul.
Sylvie was forced to her knees in the center of the circle by two of my guards. She was no longer the elegant, composed mistress of the house. Her fine clothes were disheveled, her hair a mess, and her eyes were wild with panic and defiance.
I looked out at the sea of faces, my own face an impassive mask. I began to speak, my voice flat and emotionless, carried by the pack's amplification system to every corner of the plaza. I was not a prosecutor seeking justice. I was a broken man reciting the litany of his own damnation.
"For three years," I began, my voice a dead monotone, "we have been at war. We lost allies. We lost wealth. We lost our honor. I told you this was the work of our enemies, the Thorne family. I was wrong. The enemy was here, inside our walls."
I pointed a single, trembling finger at the kneeling woman. "The architect of our decline was Sylvie of the Silver Creek Pack. She saw a moment of discord and used it to her own advantage. She whispered lies in my ear. She staged a phantom affair on the night of my wedding anniversary to turn my own Luna's heart against me."
A shocked murmur rippled through the crowd.
"And when that was not enough," I continued, my voice a relentless, self-torturing drone, "she took matters into her own hands. She used a forbidden poison, an herb of death, to murder my unborn child in my Luna's womb."
The crowd gasped, a collective sound of horror and disbelief.

Verify captcha to read the content
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Ex-Alpha's Regret: Siren's Comeback