Chapter 148: TREASON
CALLUM’S POV
The council chamber had become suffocating.
It wasn’t even about the number of people cramped into the hall, but rather the way they had all collectively decided to push this matter to its very limit. Right now, they had made a chorus demanding that I make an example out of Keisha.
I listened longer than I wanted to.
An Alpha who refused to listen was an Alpha who ruled with emotion instead of reason, and that was precisely what they wanted everyone in this room to believe about me. If I lost my temper now, they would claim my judgement had been clouded by personal attachment. If I remained calm, they would continue pressing until they found a weakness to exploit.
But I could feel the pattern. Useless bastards. Goddess help me, I wanted to kick them all out of their positions. But in this current situation? It would only raise more questions with the overall council. Every sentence circled back to the same conclusion— that I had become incapable of leading Ashveil because I was allowing one woman to influence my decisions. I knew what they all thought — they were beginning to suspect that Dane may not be the father.
Osric.
The punishment I had handed down to him weeks ago had divided the council. Some believed I had acted too harshly, others believed I had acted too quickly, and a handful had never forgiven me for making the decision without entertaining endless debate. They couldn’t challenge that judgement directly because I had acted within my authority as Alpha.
So they had found another way. If they couldn’t question my decisions, they would question the people I chose to protect. And right now, Keisha was a more delicate topic than my daughter. So they had picked her.
Now someone had decided that destroying her reputation would be far more effective than trying to destroy her life.
The masked mercenaries had failed to eliminate everyone they were sent after. Now, suddenly, confidential intelligence had surfaced with Keisha’s name attached to it.
"The evidence speaks for itself, Alpha." Someone was saying.
I lifted my eyes to Elder Bram. "Does it?"
His jaw tightened. "The communication records clearly show that Keisha exchanged classified information with members of Duskfen before they withdrew beyond their borders. If that isn’t treason, I would very much like to know what is."
"It shows that someone submitted documents bearing her credentials."
A murmur spread through the chamber. "The council cannot continue pretending this is a misunderstanding," another elder declared. "Your hesitation is becoming increasingly concerning."
"My hesitation," I replied, folding my hands behind my back, "comes from refusing to condemn someone before determining whether the evidence itself deserves to be believed."
Several elders exchanged dissatisfied looks.
One leaned forward, planting both palms on the table. "With respect, Alpha, this would be considerably easier if the accused weren’t someone you have repeatedly chosen to protect."
There it was.
I met his gaze without the slightest change in expression. "I would demand the same standard of proof regardless of who stood accused."
"But it isn’t regardless, is it?" His words lingered in the air. "You brought her into the mansion."
"Because her life was in danger, she is... Like family."
"You continue assigning guards to her. You refuse to acknowledge what is right in front of you."
"I refuse," I said calmly, "to replace an investigation with assumptions."
Silence reigned briefly before another elder broke it. "The evidence was recovered by one of her own colleagues. Surely you aren’t suggesting he fabricated everything."
Before I could respond, Someone moved forward and my brow raised.
Keisha.
What the hell was she doing here? And how long had she been there?
Dane gave me an apologetic look and I sighed. Goddess.
"I’d like to know who found this evidence." Keisha’s voice was filled with annoyance as everyone turned to her.
Several elders frowned immediately.
"This meeting is between the Alpha and the council," Elder Bram snapped. "You will remain silent until spoken to."
Keisha didn’t even acknowledge him. "I asked who found the evidence."
The elder opened his mouth again, but I made no attempt to interrupt her.
I simply watched and some of them looked at me as though hoping I would send her away. Their expressions shifted almost imperceptibly as they realised I wasn’t about to silence her.
One of them sighed impatiently before gesturing towards a man standing near the rear of the chamber. "It was him."
I recognised the face after a moment. One of the intelligence officers. I had seen him in passing several times over the years, though never long enough to remember his name. He rarely attended meetings involving pack leadership and generally kept to administrative work.
Keisha recognised him immediately. "Marcus."
He nodded stiffly.
"You found these files?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
His confidence faltered for the first time. "They... appeared during a routine archive review."
She tilted her head slightly. "Appeared?"
"They were mixed in with stored intelligence."
"Which archive?"
"The eastern records."
"That’s odd." She scowled at him.
Marcus frowned. "Why?"
"Because classified intelligence isn’t stored there."
A faint murmur rippled through the room and Marcus cleared his throat. "They may have been transferred."
"By whom?" She crossed her hands, an impatient look on her face.
"I... don’t know."
"When?"
"I can’t remember."
"You can’t remember when highly classified intelligence was moved?" Her voice was higher now.
His lips parted before closing again. "It happens."
"No," Keisha answered evenly. "It doesn’t."
The room grew noticeably quieter as she took a slow step closer. "When did you discover them?"
"This morning."
"And you immediately concluded I’d betrayed the pack?"
Marcus swallowed. "They contained your credentials."
"My credentials are attached to hundreds of intelligence reports."
He hesitated again. "They also contained communication logs."
"Did you verify where those logs originated?"
"They were attached."
"That wasn’t my question."
His silence stretched a little too long and people paused, looking between the two of them as she questioned him.
"I’d like to examine the documents," she said, turning towards me.
The chamber immediately erupted with objections.
Several elders insisted the evidence should remain untouched until further review, while others argued that allowing the accused to inspect it would compromise the investigation.
I ignored every protest and crossing the short distance to the evidence table, I gathered the documents myself before placing them into Keisha’s waiting hands.
"If they’re going to determine your future," I said quietly, "you have every right to see them."
She nodded once before lowering her eyes to the pages.
The chamber fell into an uneasy silence but nobody interrupted her and nobody moved.
I remained exactly where I was, watching every subtle change in her expression.
If this turned against her, I would intervene immediately. No matter the political consequences.
She studied each page carefully instead of rushing through them. Occasionally she lifted one closer to the light filtering through the tall windows before moving to the next. I trusted her. Keisha had built her reputation through observation. She noticed details other people overlooked.
Perhaps I should have trusted that sooner.
Nearly five minutes passed before she exhaled. Then, to everyone’s surprise— She laughed.
Several elders frowned and Marcus looked confused.
Keisha looked almost insulted. "They really expected this to work?" She lifted the top document high enough for the nearest elders to see. "Has anyone here actually looked at these papers?"
"We all have," Elder Bram replied irritably.
"No." She shook her head. "You’ve looked at the words." She turned the page around completely. "You haven’t looked at the paper."
Confused murmurs spread through the chamber as Keisha pointed towards the lower corner. "Every intelligence document produced inside Ashveil carries the official watermark pressed into the fibres during production. It’s barely visible unless the paper catches the light correctly." She angled the sheet and nothing appeared.
Then she reached for another document taken from a clerk’s desk nearby and held both side by side beneath the sunlight.
"There."
The difference became obvious. One sheet revealed the faint pressed insignia every member of the intelligence division recognised.
The other remained completely blank.
A smirk pulled at my lips.
Goddess help me, I think I just fell for this woman all over again.
"These aren’t our documents," Keisha continued, her voice calm. "The formatting has been copied almost perfectly, but whoever created these used ordinary stationery. They duplicated the writing, the seals and even my credentials, yet they overlooked the simplest security measure because they didn’t know our reports are printed on protected paper."
She flipped to another page. "It gets worse." Her finger traced the signature line. "The authentication mark is wrong."
Marcus stared at the page.
"So are the approval codes. They’re arranged according to an outdated filing system we abandoned years ago. Anyone currently working inside intelligence would know that immediately." She lowered the papers. "These documents are fabricated."
I’d underestimated her.
Somewhere along the line, I’d fallen into the habit of seeing Keisha as someone who constantly needed protecting. She certainly needed protection from those trying to kill her, but I’d forgotten she was more than capable of defending herself when given the chance.
The room was silent for only a minute.
"It proves nothing," Elder Bram declared sharply.
Several others nodded at once. "The absence of a watermark doesn’t erase the communications."
"The contents remain suspicious. Forgery is merely another convenient excuse."
They were doubling down. Bastards.
Keisha had dismantled the foundation of the accusation, and yet they continued searching for reasons to condemn her anyway.
Slowly, I rose to my feet, my voice loud and final. "My duty as Alpha is not to satisfy suspicion. It is to uphold justice."
No one interrupted.
"You brought allegations before this council claiming Keisha committed treason. The evidence presented in support of those allegations has now been shown to contain obvious inconsistencies that should have been identified before this meeting was ever convened. Instead of investigating those inconsistencies, many of you chose to demand punishment first and answers later." My gaze swept slowly across the chamber, lingering on each elder in turn. "That won’t continue now."
No one spoke. They all waited for my next words.
"This investigation will continue until the individual responsible for fabricating these documents is found. When that person is identified, they will answer not only for attempting to frame an innocent member of this pack, but also for deliberately manipulating the council and obstructing an official investigation."
I looked from Marcus to the elders before letting my eyes settle on every face in the chamber. "And let every person in Ashveil hear this clearly. Whoever is attempting to harm Keisha, whoever is working to destroy her reputation or fabricate evidence against her, should pray we find them before they make another mistake. Because the moment they are identified, they will answer to me personally, and they will be charged with treason against this pack."