Ryder POV:
I sat on the throne, Sophia on my lap. This was not a banquet anymore. It was an execution waiting to happen.
The air smelled of fear and stale champagne. I looked down at the man who had dared to reject my soul.
August Cadwell. He was pathetic. A weak-chinned, watery-eyed excuse for a male. I couldn't understand how Sophia had ever shed a tear for him.
"Speak," I commanded.
August crawled forward on his hands and knees. He didn't dare look me in the eye. Instead, he fixed his gaze on Sophia, desperation leaking from his pores.
"Sophia," he choked out. "Please. It was a mistake. I was young. The Elders pressured me to find a mate with strong bloodlines. I didn't know... I didn't know you were a latent wolf."
He was trying to appeal to her history. To the love she once held for him.
I felt a growl building in my chest. My hand tightened on the armrest of the throne. *Mine,* my wolf Fenrir snarled in my head. *Rip his throat out.*
Sophia looked at him with zero emotion. "You didn't reject me because of the Elders, August. You rejected me because you wanted power. You wanted Hailey's family connections."
"But we had seven years!" August cried, getting desperate. "Seven years of memories! You can't just erase that!"
He pointed a shaking finger at me.
"He's just a rebound!" August shouted, his voice cracking. "You only married him because I broke your heart! He's a substitute! A replacement for me!"
*Crack.*
The crystal wine glass in my hand turned to dust. Shards of glass bit into my palm, but I didn't feel it.
A substitute.
The word burned. It was my deepest insecurity. I had found Sophia broken, weeping in the rain three years ago. I had put her back together. But a part of me always feared that she only loved me because I saved her, not because I was her true match.
The room went deadly silent.
Then, I felt soft lips on my bleeding hand.
I looked down. Sophia was kissing my palm, ignoring the blood and glass dust. She looked up at me, and then turned her gaze to August. Her eyes were cold as ice.
"You are delusional," she said clearly. "Ryder is not a substitute. He is my soul. When I look at you, August, I feel nothing. But when I look at him, I feel whole."
She laced her fingers with mine. "You were a mistake. Ryder is my destiny."
My heart slammed against my ribs. The knot of tension in my chest loosened.
August’s face twisted in ugly rage. He realized his emotional manipulation wasn't working. He looked at the small boy standing beside the throne.
Darren was glaring at him.
"Fine!" August spat. "Go with him! But I'm willing to forgive you, Sophia. I'm willing to take you back. I'll even let that... that bastard child live in the servants' quarters."
The air left the room.
To call an Alpha Heir a "bastard" was a death sentence.
I stood up. The movement was slow, deliberate.
"What did you call my son?" I asked.
August realized too late what he had said. He opened his mouth to stammer an apology, but Darren moved first.
Darren didn't speak. He didn't make a speech. He just reacted with the pure, unadulterated instinct of a predator.
His eyes flashed a bright, ruby red.
With a snarl that sounded too big for his small chest, Darren launched himself off the dais. He was small, but he had Lymerian blood. He moved like a bullet.
August didn't even have time to flinch before three-year-old teeth sank into his outstretched hand.
*
