Lysandra POV:
The next few days were absolute hell.
The five Alphas didn't just ignore me. They went out of their way to make my life miserable.
It started at breakfast the morning after the council meeting. I'd made the mistake of going to the main dining hall instead of hiding in my room. The moment I walked in, the entire room went quiet.
Kieran was sitting at the head of the table with Theron and Cassian. They all looked at me, and the disgust on their faces was almost comical in how obvious it was.
"Oh good," Kieran said loudly. "The dead girl walking has joined us."
Several nobles laughed.
I kept my face blank and walked to the buffet table to get food. My hands were shaking, but I refused to let them see it.
"I don't understand why she's still here," Theron said, his voice carrying across the room. "Shouldn't she go crawl back to whatever basement she came from?"
More laughter.
"Maybe she likes the food," Darius said from another table. He'd just walked in with Zane. "Can't blame her. It's better than table scraps."
"Is that what the Blackwater family fed her?" Cassian asked, tilting his head. "Scraps?"
"I heard they kept her in the basement like a dog," someone said.
"At least dogs have some use," Zane said coldly.
The entire room erupted in laughter.
I stood there with a plate of food in my hands, my face burning, trying to decide if I should stay or run.
"Aww, look," Kieran said, false sympathy dripping from his voice. "We've hurt her feelings."
"Does she even have feelings?" Theron asked. "She agreed to die rather easily. Maybe she's not fully human."
"She's not fully anything," Cassian said. "No wolf, no power, no purpose."
I set my plate down carefully and turned to face them.
"Are you all done?" I asked.
"Done?" Kieran raised an eyebrow. "We've barely started. We have months to make fun of you before you die. Might as well enjoy it."
"How gracious of you," I said.
"I thought so." He smiled, and it was cruel. "Tell me, Lysandra. What's it like knowing you're completely worthless? That even the Moon Goddess's prophecy couldn't make you valuable enough to keep?"
"I don't know," I said. "What's it like being so insecure that you need to mock a wolfless orphan to feel powerful?"
His smile disappeared. "Watch your tone."
"Or what? You'll reject me again? Already done. You'll make fun of me? Already doing that. You'll kill me?" I laughed. "Already dying. You have no power over me, Your Highness. None of you do."
"We have all the power," Zane said, stepping out of the shadows. "You're here because we allow it. You eat because we allow it. You breathe because we haven't decided otherwise."
"Wow," I said. "That's incredibly threatening. I'm so scared."
His eyes went dark. "You should be."
"Why? The worst you can do is kill me, and I'm already dying. So congratulations. You're impotent threats walking."
Theron stood up, his chair scraping loudly. He was huge, towering over everyone, and he looked furious. "You really want to test us?"
"Not particularly," I said. "I just want to eat my breakfast in peace. But apparently that's too much to ask."
"Peace?" Darius laughed. "You're going to die because you're too weak to accept a mate bond. You don't deserve peace."
"And you're going to die because you're too proud to accept a mate bond," I shot back. "So I guess we're all stupid together."
"The difference," Cassian said coldly, "is that we have reasons to be proud. You have nothing."
"You're right," I said. "I have nothing. No family. No pack. No power. But at least I'm not so pathetic that I need to gang up on someone weaker than me to feel good about myself."
The room went dead silent.
