Chapter 54. She’s Awake

Xander’s POV

The room buzzed with tension, the weight of Lydia’s testimony hanging heavy in the air like an approaching storm. My pulse hammered in my chest, each beat echoing the disbelief coursing through my veins. Alison, an Alpha’s blood? No, it couldn’t be. But she was lying lifeless in my room? My throat felt dry as sand paper, my mind a whirlwind of doubts and fragmented truths. The room was suffocating, a mix of aged wood, the faint tang of ink from council documents, and the oppressive energy of too many power-hungry alphas confined in one space.

Alpha Gaius stood tall at the center, his voice slicing through the murmur of the council like a blade. “Do you still need more proof?” His eyes, sharp and unyielding, bored into the Head Alpha, daring him to counter his claim.

The Head Alpha finally exhaled, a long, deliberate sigh that silenced the room. His gray eyes, clouded with years of judgment and authority, darted between Gaius and me. “This counci