Victor cleared the ballroom within five minutes, barking orders to usher the remaining guests out the side doors while two guards dragged me into the private reception hall.
The heavy mahogany doors slammed shut, cutting off the whispers of the crowd.
"You embarrassed this entire bloodline," Victor said, his voice shaking with pure fury as he paced the floor in front of me. "In front of the southern council! In front of every high-ranking family in this territory!"
"I told the truth," I replied, standing my ground despite the guards gripping my upper arms. "You lied to the pack, Victor. You built a fantasy to steal my son."
"That rogue in the woods has poisoned your head," Victor snarled, stepping into my face. "He took advantage of a broken, shiftless girl, filled your head with nonsense, and made you turn against your own flesh and blood. You are severing that pathetic bond tonight."
"Never."
Victor’s eyes dropped to my left wrist.
The Moonsteel bracelet caught the light, its dark, polished surface gleaming against my skin. Lucian had fastened it there with a promise of protection before I left the northern valley.
"Take it off," Victor ordered.
"No."
"I said take it off!" Victor reached out to grab my arm, but I twisted away, pulling my wrist against my chest to protect the metal and the curve of my belly.
"Marcus. Thomas," Victor commanded coldly. "Hold her down."
The two enforcers didn't hesitate. One shoved my shoulders back against the leather sofa while the other seized my left arm, wrenching my wrist forward. I fought against them with everything I had, thrashing against their iron grip, but their physical strength overpowered me.
Victor took hold of the Moonsteel band, his thick fingers fumbling with the intricate clasp.
"Stop!" I gasped, kicking out at the guards. "Don't touch it! Victor, let go!"
With a harsh click, the clasp gave way. Victor yanked the bracelet free, skin scraping painfully against the metal edge as he ripped it from my hand.
He held the dark silver band up to the light, turning it over in his palm with a look of disgust.
Celeste stepped forward from beside Gavin, her eyes widening as she examined the craftsmanship. The dark silver possessed a strange, heavy sheen that no common jeweler could replicate.
"Look at that," Celeste murmured, reaching out to trace the metal. "It’s beautiful. I’ve never seen silver this dark."
"It's just junk from the woods," Victor said dismissively.
"If Elara doesn't want to cooperate, she doesn't deserve something this fine," Celeste said, looking up at Victor with a soft, pleading smile. "Give it to me, Father. I can wear it to the council banquet next week. It matches my formal gowns perfectly."
"Celeste is right," my mother chimed in from the doorway, smoothing her skirt with an indifferent shrug. "What's the big deal about a piece of jewelry between sisters? Celeste will actually represent this family with pride. Elara only uses it to cling to her mistakes."
A surge of pure panic ripped through my chest.
"Give it back!" I lunged forward, tearing one arm free from the guard's grip and reaching toward Celeste. "Don't you dare put your hands on that! It isn't yours!"
I had never screamed at them like that. For three years, I had taken their insults in silence, swallowed their cruelty, and walked away from their abuse without a fight.
Seeing me lose control stopped Victor in his tracks.
He stared at me, his gaze shifting between my desperate expression and the heavy silver band in his hand. A dark, ugly realization settled across his face.
"You really care about this," Victor said slowly.
"Victor, please," I said, my voice trembling as I tried to pull free again. "Take the car. Take whatever you want. Just give me the bracelet back."
"This isn't about jewelry," Victor said, his voice dropping into a harsh, punitive growl. "This is the tether. As long as you have this token, you think that rogue is going to save you. You think you have a life outside this pack house."
"Father, let me have it—" Celeste started.
"No," Victor cut her off. "Nobody is wearing it."
He turned on his heel and walked toward the massive stone fireplace at the end of the hall. The hearth roared with thick birch logs, flames licking high against the black iron grate.
"Victor, no!" I screamed, struggling wildly against the guards who pinned my arms behind my back. "Don't do it!"
"Forget that rogue," Victor declared, raising his arm above the roaring fire. "Your baby belongs to this family now."
He opened his fingers.
The Moonsteel bracelet dropped straight into the center of the white-hot coals.
"No!" The sound tore from my throat, raw and broken.
The flames surged instantly around the metal. Moonsteel did not melt easily, but the extreme heat swallowed it whole, turning the dark silver surface into a glowing, fiery red within seconds. The royal crest engraved along the inner curve vanished beneath the burning embers.
What Victor didn't know was that the crest carried a second safeguard: if the band was forcibly damaged, it sent the same distress signal as pressing the clasp.
The room fell dead silent.
Victor dusted his hands together, looking back at me with cold satisfaction.
"It's done," he said. "Your past is burned. From this moment on, you focus entirely on carrying Celeste's heir."
I stopped fighting.
The tension left my limbs so suddenly that the guards loosened their grip, unsure of what to do. I didn't scream. I didn't lunge at the hearth, and I didn't shed a single tear.
A chilling stillness washed over me, numbing every nerve in my body.
The last shred of blood ties, the last ghost of childhood longing, turned to ash right along with that bracelet. They had no idea what they had just broken. They had no idea what kind of fire they had just invited into their home.
I stood straight, brushing the guard's hand off my shoulder, and looked Victor dead in the eye.
My voice came out quiet, calm, and completely devoid of warmth.
"Are you sure?"
Victor scoffed, amused by the question. "Am I sure? I was the Alpha of Silver Crest. I decide what enters this house and what burns in it."
He stepped toward me, his chest puffed out with arrogant authority.
"I am absolutely sure."
The moment the word left his lips, a low, unnatural vibration rattled through the floorboards.
The crystal glasses on the side table began to clink together.
Then, from the far edge of the mountain territory, a sound tore through the night sky.
It was a wolf's howl.
It was not the high, frantic pitch of a territorial guard, nor the defensive cry of a border patrol. It was a deep, earth-shaking roar that resonated straight through bone, carrying an ancient, terrifying weight of royal blood.
The two guards behind me instantly froze.
Their eyes dilated in sheer terror. Before Victor could bark an order, both enforcers dropped hard to their knees, their heads bowed low against the carpet as their inner wolves submitted to an absolute, crushing authority they couldn't control.
Victor stumbled back a step, clutching his chest as his own Alpha aura was brutally snuffed out like a candle in a hurricane.
"What... what is that?" Celeste whispered, clutching Gavin's arm as her knees buckled.
The double doors of the hall were thrown open with a violent crash.
A border guard stumbled inside, his uniform torn and his face completely drained of color. He collapsed against the doorframe, gasping for air as if the very atmosphere outside had been stripped away.
"Alpha Victor!" the guard choked out, his voice shaking uncontrollably. "The borders... the entire perimeter..."
"Speak!" Victor roared, trying to force himself to stand upright against the suffocating pressure rolling through the estate. "Who is out there?!"
"Northern Royal Wolves," the guard sobbed, trembling from head to foot. "Hundreds of them. They’ve completely surrounded the estate. Our defenses fell in seconds."
Tires crunched over the gravel driveway outside.
Through the tall glass windows, two blinding headlights cut through the darkness, illuminating the grand entrance of the pack house. A massive, sleek black convoy idled on the front lawn, flanked by dozens of colossal silver-and-black wolves whose glowing golden eyes locked onto the front doors.
The guard swallowed hard, his voice dropping into a terrified whisper.
"The Alpha King is here."
Victor’s face turned paper-white.
In the dead silence of the hall, I looked at my trembling family, and a faint, cold smile finally touched my lips.
"I know."
