"The Pack Heir isn't in the territory. You think you can act this brazen without consequence? You don't think he'll come back and settle the score?"
Settle the score with me? If he didn't come looking for me first, I'd be looking for him. Keeping a secret mate, dragging the Shadowmere name through the mud. The heir to the Shadowmere Pack, stooping to something so disgraceful.
Rosalind charged forward and slapped Nana Ashwick clean across the face. The crack rang out sharp and loud. "Insolent old hag! How dare you speak to my Luna that way. How dare you slander her."
Nana Ashwick shrieked. "You dare strike me? Mistress, you must stand up for this old servant! Have the Pack Heir cast out this vicious she-wolf at once!"
"Otherwise, once you enter the pack estate, who knows what torments she'll put you through."
I let out a cold laugh. "Have the heir cast me out? My status is not something the heir has the authority to revoke."
Celeste bit her lip and stared at me. Something in her scent shifted, that honeysuckle sweetness thickening until the bruised-peach undertone bled through, cloying and deliberate. "If my Luna wishes to beat or kill someone, direct it at me. Why strike my nursemaid? Are you truly not afraid the heir will punish you when he returns?"
"Cruel as you are, the mating bond may have been ordained by the Alpha King, but if you harm the heir's pup, he can still sever the bond all the same."
I smiled. "Miss Thornwell puts on quite the performance. Perhaps she should join the traveling minstrel troupe."
"If the heir wants to champion your cause, by all means, send him to me. I won't run from it."
The crowd of onlookers grew indignant, their collective unease pressing in like the low rumble before a storm. "You've gone too far! Just because her rank is lower than yours, she deserves to be humiliated?"
"Exactly! She's seven or eight moons along, about to deliver. A kick like that could kill her!"
"She knows the Alpha King's decree protects her from being cast aside, so she acts without fear."
Celeste straightened up, trembling, and looked at me through her tears. "I know my station is lowly. I came specifically to beg my Luna's mercy. I never imagined she would try to end my life."
"The heir told me that while he was away from the territory, no matter what I had to do, I was to protect myself at all costs. Even if it meant overstepping."
"Since that's how it is, my Luna, don't blame me."
Celeste rose to her feet with Nana Ashwick's help and shouted, "Guards!"
Several armed pack warriors emerged from behind her, their eyes hard and their stances wide. Celeste pointed at me. "Bind her. I want to see whether the heir, once he learns his own bonded mate tried to murder his pup, will sever the bond or not."
I jabbed a finger at my own nose. "Sever the bond with me? Does the heir have the nerve? Tell him to try."
The lead warrior approached with a stony face. "My Luna, why must you bully a helpless she-wolf?"
"The heir gave orders. No one, not even his bonded mate, is to mistreat his chosen companion. Forgive the offense."
He moved to seize me. My wolf went still inside my chest, not with fear but with something colder. Something that tasted like warning.
Rosalind threw herself in front of me. "You wouldn't dare! Do you have any idea who my Luna is?"
The warrior shoved Rosalind aside. "Doesn't matter who she is. She's wronged the heir's companion, and she'll kneel and apologize for it."
Nana Ashwick clutched her swollen, reddened cheek and screeched, "Warrior! This vicious she-wolf can't bear pups yet still clings to the position of Luna, tormenting our mistress!"
"Once the mistress delivers the heir's firstborn son, she'll surely be elevated to honored mate or equal Luna. Then it's the mistress who'll be the true lady of the pack!"
"A barren she-wolf like her should be thrown out of the estate. Go on, hit her! The mistress will answer for it."
Celeste spoke in that soft, fragile voice of hers. "My Luna, even someone as high and mighty as you must own up to her wrongs. Just apologize to Nana, and we can put this behind us."
I let out a cold laugh. "Apologize to her? You think either of you are worthy of that?"
Celeste sighed. "If that's how you want it, I can't help you." She shot Nana Ashwick a look. The old woman lunged forward and struck me hard across the face.
The sting bloomed hot and instant. Around us, the air changed. I could feel the gathered wolves draw back half a step, could smell the sharp spike of shock cutting through the crowd like iron through still water.
"Forgive me, my Luna. This old servant is petty by nature. You don't beat the dog without checking who its master is. Since you hit me first, it's only fair I return the favor."
