Lucian's POV
*****
After everything they discussed, the time for the press briefing came.
The royal throne room had never felt this quiet.
Not because it was empty—far from it—but because every breath inside it felt controlled. It was the kind of silence that only existed when an entire empire was waiting for one man to speak.
Lucian stood at the base of the dais, hands clasped behind his back, shoulders squared. Behind him loomed the thrones of the Alpha king and Luna Queen, carved from moonstone and gold and layered with runes older than most bloodlines still breathing.
He couldn't sit on it tonight. Not yet.
Tonight wasn't about crowns.
It was about accountability.
Behind the transparent energy barrier that separated the dais from the press floor, hundreds of reporters waited—wolves who've already been waiting outside the palace gates before he and Elian touched down on Moon Haven city.
