"Then what do you suggest?" he asked, and he couldn't quite keep the edge from his voice. "What could possibly bridge this divide if not the traditional means of negotiation? If you won't accept our resources, if our proposals are inadequate, then what do you want?"
The three Elders exchanged glances.
No words passed between them, but Aldridge could see the communication happening. A slight tilt of Thorne's head. A narrowing of Ravenna's eyes. The smallest nod from Korvus. They were deciding something. Making a choice that would shape everything that followed.
The pause stretched on. Ten seconds. Twenty. Aldridge could hear his own heartbeat in his ears, could feel sweat forming at his hairline despite the cool temperature of the room.
Finally, Elder Korvus spoke, his voice a low rumble that seemed to vibrate in Aldridge's chest.
"An alliance."
He let the word sit for a moment before continuing.
"A true binding between our peoples. Not treaties that can be broken when convenient. Not agreements that fade when leadership changes. Something permanent. Something that cannot be undone."
He leaned forward slightly, his scarred hands spreading on the table.
"Something sacred."
Ambassador Okoye shifted in her seat.
"What kind of alliance are you proposing?" she asked, though something in her voice suggested she already knew, already dreaded the answer.
Elder Thorne looked directly at President Aldridge as he spoke.
"Marriage."
The word dropped into the room like a stone into still water, sending ripples of shock outward.
"We propose an intermarriage between our races. A human bride for our Lycan King. Such a union would stabilize the situation, create bonds that cannot be severed by political whims or changing circumstances."
His eyes never left Aldridge's face.
"Blood calls to blood, Mr. President. It is the wolf way. A child born of both races would inherit both legacies. War between our peoples would become war against our own bloodline. No treaty can create that kind of peace. Only family."
The silence that followed was absolute.
No one moved. No one breathed.
General Hawthorne's hand had frozen halfway to her water glass. Chancellor Wei had gone completely pale, his mouth slightly open. Ambassador Okoye stared at the table, her expression unreadable.
Aldridge felt like the air had been sucked from the room.
Marriage. They wanted a marriage alliance.
It was archaic. Medieval. The kind of thing that happened in history books, not in the modern world. Not in his world.
But as he looked past the Elders at the screen still displaying this month's casualty count, as he thought of the memorial services he'd attended, the families he'd tried to console, the children who would grow up without parents, he couldn't dismiss it.
Not completely.
Not when fifty-three people had died just yesterday.
"A human bride," he said slowly, testing the words, trying to make them sound reasonable in his own mind. "From where? Who would...."
But even as he asked, cold dread was pooling in his stomach.
He could see it in their eyes. In the way Elder Thorne was looking at him. In the slight curve of Elder Ravenna's lips that might have been a smile but looked more like a predator baring its teeth.
They had already decided.
They had decided before they even walked into this room.
Elder Thorne leaned back in his chair, the leather creaking softly. The gesture was casual, relaxed, but his gaze remained fixed on Aldridge with laser focus.
"Of course, your daughter, Mr. President."
The words fell into the silence.
"Who else would be appropriate?"
The room tilted.
Aldridge gripped the edge of the table, his knuckles going white.
"My daughter?"
His voice came out strangled, barely recognizable as his own. He pushed back from the table, half-rising from his seat before his legs betrayed him and he collapsed back down.
"Absolutely not."
The words burst out of him, loud in the quiet room.
"That is not on the table. That will never be on the table."
"President Aldridge....." Chancellor Wei began, reaching out a hand.
"No."
Aldridge cut him off with a sharp gesture, his hand slicing through the air.
"I won't discuss this. Elena is twenty-three years old. She has her own life to live, her own dreams to accomplish, and her own future to shape. I will not barter her away. I will not trade my daughter like she's some property."
His hands were shaking now. He pressed them flat against the table to stop the trembling but still, it was inevitable...
"Suggest something else. Anything else. But not this. Never this."
Elder Ravenna's expression didn't change, but something flickered in her amber eyes. Not sympathy. Something colder. Calculation, perhaps. Or disappointment that he was making this difficult.
"Mr. President, we understand your reluctance," she said, her voice smooth and patient, as if explaining...