Defying the Rogue Alpha
Chapter 202: Powers

Chapter 202: Powers

Eryx leaned forward now, fingers steepled. "The powers you received from your wife."

Lucas sat there, the very picture of composed fury. "What about them?" he asked.

"The agreement," Eryx said. "We had a very clear understanding. That we could not, and would not, allow you to retain both your position as Alpha and the powers gifted to you by your Luna."

Lucas gave a mirthless chuckle. "If I clearly remember the details of that agreement," he said slowly, "you were supposed to provide support in rescuing my wife. In exchange, I would relinquish any and all power afterward. You reneged. You went back on your word. So forgive me if I don’t jump at the chance to keep mine."

"Lucas," Thorn interjected, palms up in a placating gesture, "the problem isn’t that you have the powers. It’s in the way you use them."

Lucas rose then, moving slowly, deliberately. He took a step toward the window, gazing out over his fortress with his back to the councilmen.

"The way I use them?" he repeated. "You mean saving an entire region from a tyrant? Protecting my mate from people who treated her like a pawn? Or is it that I didn’t burn the Council to the ground the moment I walked out of your prison?"

"You are too powerful, Lucas. You’ve crossed into a realm no Alpha has ever ventured into. You’re not just feared anymore. You’re revered. That kind of worship... it breeds dissent."

"Let me make one thing clear," he continued, each word deliberate. "The power I have came from love. From a bond stronger than any decree. Ava didn’t give me power. She is my power. And I will never give that up."

Eryx’s expression finally cracked, just slightly. "Then we have a problem."

Lucas’s lips twitched into a razor-thin smile. "No, you have a problem. So if you came here thinking you could shame me, strip me of what I’ve built...what I’ve bled for...you’ve gravely misunderstood the kind of man I am. I haven’t used those powers since I got them," Lucas said. "I don’t even know how it works."

It wasn’t entirely a lie but it wasn’t the full truth either. He felt the powers simmering under his skin sometimes, humming in his veins. But using them? No.

"You don’t expect us to take your word for it, do you, Alpha Lucas? Not when we have two bodies to count."

"I had nothing to do with that," he said, enunciating each word.

Eryx raised a skeptical brow. "So you had nothing to do with Herod’s death?"

Lucas let out a laugh that was all teeth. "Herod was a dead man walking the moment he laid a hand on my mate," he said, fire flashing in his eyes. "But I didn’t whisper into his ear to kill himself, if that’s what you’re suggesting. I didn’t crawl into his mind and convince him to tie a noose. He did that all by himself."

"Alpha Lucas," Eryx continued. "We are not fools. The man who kidnapped your mate ends up committing suicide. The woman who tried to have your mate executed also hangs herself publicly, right after you receive powers to submit. This is not a coincidence."

Lucas tilted his head. "You’re right. It’s not."

He let the moment breathe, then said calmly, "It’s not a coincidence. It’s a lesson. Don’t. Touch. My. Mate."

He watched the effect of his words ripple across the room. "But still," he added, "I did nothing to influence their deaths. I didn’t have to."

"You’re asking us to believe you’re innocent based on your word alone."

Lucas gave him a flat look. "No, I’m not asking. I’m telling you I’m innocent."

"Our point is simple," Eryx said, lacking even the decency to sound remorseful. "You have to step away, Alpha Lucas."

His eyes narrowed. "Or what?" he asked. He leaned forward, every movement slow, the calm before a very violent storm.

"Or the Silver Pack will be labelled a rogue faction," Eryx said. "And you will be sealed off from other territories."

Lucas gave a sharp, incredulous laugh. He pushed himself up from his chair with casual elegance, his posture radiating effortless dominance. "You really thought that through, did you?" he asked. "You realise almost half of the territories in the East are under my rule. Do you want to go ahead and ask those alphas, if they’re ready to go against me? Would you care to see how quickly your house of cards collapses?"

He leaned in just a bit more, eyes gleaming. "Do you, Eryx?"

Lucas wasn’t bluffing and every soul in the room knew it. His strength didn’t come from magic. It came from loyalty. From battle scars. From every life he had bled for. From the Luna who carried his child. No High Council could unmake that.

"You have seven days," Eryx said, barely hiding his tremor, "to come back with a response. If you refuse, the announcements will be made. You’ll be sealed off."

Lucas let the words settle. They were meant to scare him, meant to cage him. But all it did was remind him just how much he loathed politics and all its smoke-and-mirror cowardice. He let out a slow breath and turned back to his desk, his fingers trailing across the grain of the wood.

"I’d like to see you try," he said at last. "Nothing you do can hold me. You tried that once...locked me and my brother in your precious cells. It didn’t work. You want to give it another shot?"

"I promised my wife," Lucas continued, "that I wouldn’t use the powers she passed to me. And I intend to keep that promise, even if it kills me."

He paused, and a flicker of warmth passed over his face. "But it’s insulting," he added, "that after all these years, and all the battles I’ve won, you old nuts still think I need some mystical gift to get things done."

He stepped out from behind the desk now, tall, calm, exuding warlord energy. "I am my own storm," he said simply. "You poke me...I bring it."

(Shout out to Ayesha_Riz, AMOem, nolegirl)