Edith's eyes reddened on cue. "Dear pack-sister, you don't actually think I'm the one who withheld your allowance, do you?"
"I'll send someone to investigate at once. Whichever wretched servant intercepted that money and pocketed it will answer for it."
She hurried off with her attendant in tow. Half an hour later, she returned and had a scrawny young she-wolf dragged before me, bound and trembling.
"Pack-sister, it was this worthless wretch all along! She stole every coin the Alpha sent you, moon cycle after moon cycle, to pay for her mother's healing. I'll have her beaten to death right here. Consider it justice served!"
"That won't be necessary."
My voice was ice. Even I wasn't foolish enough to miss it. The girl was skin and bone, a scapegoat shoved forward to take the fall. Her scent was thin with hunger and terror, nothing like someone who'd been skimming gold moons for years.
I turned to carry my daughter toward the banquet hall, but behind me, Edith flicked a glance at her children.
In the next instant, her son and daughter charged at us, stones already in their fists, hurling them straight at my head.
"You evil woman! You're trying to steal our daddy! In your dreams!"
"Beat her dead! Don't you dare bully our mommy or take our daddy away!"
Stone after stone flew at us. I twisted to shield Hildegarde, but one rock caught her square on the forehead. Blood poured down instantly.
Hildegarde wailed, her small body shaking with sobs. The two brats grinned at the sight and scooped up more stones, throwing harder.
I turned and fixed them with a stare cold enough to freeze marrow. "Do you want to die?"
Something in my voice must have carried the weight of the Silvercrest bloodline, because both children flinched as if struck. They scrambled behind Finn, clutching his collar and whimpering.
"Daddy, that woman said she's going to kill us!"
Finn dropped to his knees at once, pulling them close, murmuring comfort. When he finally looked up at me, his brows were knotted with fury.
"Narelle, are you done making a scene?"
"Since the moment you set foot in this den, you've turned the whole pack upside down. Take your daughter and get out of here!"
Hildegarde's forehead was split open. Blood ran down past her eye, tracing a thin red line along her cheek. Finn didn't spare her a single glance.
He only had arms for the two children in Edith's brood.
I clenched my jaw so hard my teeth ached, clutched my daughter tight, and charged toward the banquet hall, screaming at the top of my lungs:
"A healer! Is there a healer here?!"
Finn's head snapped up. He lunged to stop me.
"Narelle! Who do you think you are, making a scene in front of the pack healer?! Don't you dare!"
He clamped a hand over my mouth. His servants grabbed for Hildegarde, trying to pry her from my arms and drag her away. She was already gasping between sobs, and now their hands smothered her mouth and nose. Her face went from red to a mottled purple.
I stopped thinking. I sank my teeth into Finn's hand until I tasted blood.
Then I broke free and ran, stumbling into the banquet, locking onto that one familiar figure, and screamed:
"Xavier Dawnmere! You're a pack healer! Save my daughter!"
Xavier spun around. His eyes went wide, shock and disbelief tangled together, and then something fierce and bright broke through. Joy. Raw, unguarded joy. His scent, dried lavender and sun-warmed birch bark, surged sharp with it.
"You're alive?"
He rushed to me, already reaching for Hildegarde, pressing his hands to the wound to stanch the bleeding. His fingers glowed faintly with the old wolf-healing warmth, and Hildegarde's ragged sobs softened to hiccups against my chest.
The commotion reached the high dais. Luna Consort Rosalind Nighthollow tilted her head, her gaze drifting down toward the disturbance.
"Who was that woman just now? Her voice sounds so familiar."
Finn stepped forward and bowed low, his answer quick and smooth:
"Your Grace, it's nothing. Just a servant from the den. A packless attendant, that's all."
That was when I laughed. A short, cold sound. I pulled the mating bond certificate from my sleeve and dropped to my knees.
"Your Grace. I am no attendant. I am Narelle Silvercrest, Alpha-blooded daughter of the Silvercrest Pack. And I am here to beg your permission for a formal bond dissolution from Finn Thornwood, Alpha of the Thornwood Pack."
