Lilian’s POV
I packed in silence.
Not the kind of silence that comes from peace,but the kind wolves learn when they realize no one in the den is listening anyway.I folded clothes into my travel bag,tucked my documents into the inner lining,and slid the contract from last night between two pieces of stiff leather so it wouldn’t crease.Even my wolf stayed quiet,pressed low in my ribs like it was conserving strength.
When I stepped out of my room,the corridor smelled faintly of incense and old cedar.The Wyatt manor was awake,but it pretended it wasn’t.Doors stayed closed.Servants avoided my eyes.In this Pack,your value decided whether you were seen.
Then I spotted her.
Adeline leaned casually against the second-floor railing,as if she’d been waiting for me the way a predator waits for prey to step into open ground.Her hair fell in soft waves.Her robe was pale,delicate,innocent.Her scent was sweetened with jasmine to hide the sharper note beneath it,the one that always made my wolf tense.
In her palm,she held my engagement ring.
Brian’s ring.
The band caught the light with a cold gleam as she rolled it over her fingers,her smile smug and unhurried.
“Lilian,”she drawled,voice bright as honey,“was that kidnapping game fun last time?”
My grip tightened on my bag strap.I could still feel the darkness of that room.The walls too close.The air too thin.My ribs ached as if the bones remembered being broken.
Adeline tilted her head,eyes glittering.“You still haven’t learned your lesson,have you?No one will believe you.They’ll only believe me.”She smiled wider.“You’re nothing but a liar.”
I forced my voice into steadiness.“Give it back.”
“Oh,right.”She laughed softly,as if I’d said something amusing.“I forgot to tell you.”She lifted the ring higher,letting it swing between her fingertips like a charm.“The men who beat you were sent by Brian himself.”
My breath hitched before I could stop it.
Adeline watched my face with hungry satisfaction.“It was his punishment,”she continued,savoring every word,“for making me sick with your little self-made drama.”
My stomach turned.Even knowing what I’d overheard in the infirmary,hearing it spoken so openly,so casually,still felt like a claw raking down my chest.Like Brian’s hands were on my throat again,squeezing until I couldn’t breathe.
Adeline laughed louder,rubbing the ring as if polishing a trophy.Then her fingers loosened.
The ring slipped.
It clattered down the stairs with a sharp,metallic sound,striking step after step like a countdown.
“What did you just do?”The words ripped out of me before I could swallow them back.
My body moved on instinct.That ring wasn’t just metal.It was three years of a lie,and the last proof that I hadn’t imagined everything.I lunged forward.
But as I rushed past her,Adeline shifted.
She leaned into my path,blocking me with her body.Her lips curled into something colder than a smile.In one smooth motion,she grabbed my wrist,then guided my hand upward as if I were the one reaching for her.
She pressed my palm against her shoulder.
Then she screamed.
A piercing,theatrical sound that split the quiet of the manor like a blade.
Adeline threw herself backward,twisting as she fell,letting her body tumble down the stairs.Her robe flared like a wounded dove’s wings.She hit the floor hard,half-kneeling in a heap,hair scattered,tears already spilling as if she’d been rehearsing them all morning.
“Ah!”she wailed.“It hurts!”
Footsteps thundered from below.Heavy.Furious.Familiar.
Brian’s scent hit first,all sharp pine and dominance,the kind of Alpha presence that used to make my wolf lift its head with hope.My parents followed,their auras tight with righteous outrage.
From where they stood,they saw only what Adeline wanted them to see.
Me at the top of the staircase.
Adeline curled on the floor below,sobbing like a victim carved from porcelain.
Brian stormed up the last few steps,seized my arm,and yanked me forward.His grip bruised instantly,like his body remembered how to hurt me better than how to hold me.
“Lilian!”he shouted.“How could you push Adeline?”
“I didn’t push her.”My voice came out rough,controlled by teeth clenched so hard my jaw ached.“She fell on her own.”
My father’s face flushed red,his Alpha temper flaring hot.“Are you still lying?”he bellowed.“You know Adeline’s health isn’t good.How could you be so cruel?”
My mother stepped forward,her eyes like winter ice.She didn’t ask.She didn’t hesitate.She shoved me hard.
My lower back slammed into the railing.Pain shot up my spine and stole my breath.My wolf snarled inside me,not in rage,but in humiliation.A daughter shoved by her own Luna,like I was nothing more than a rogue dragged into their home by mistake.
On the floor,Adeline lifted her head slightly and clung to Brian’s shirt with trembling fingers,tears glistening in her lashes.
“Brian,”she whispered,voice weak and sweet,“don’t blame Lilian.Maybe I bumped into her and made her angry.Just…pretend I fell on my own.Don’t make things difficult for my parents.”
Her performance was flawless.It painted her as kind,and me as monstrous.
Brian’s expression darkened further.He looked at Adeline like she was fragile moonlight.Then he turned on me as if I were dirt under his boot.
He snatched up the ring where it had landed near the bottom step.For a heartbeat,it flashed in his hand,the stone catching firelight like a star.
Then he hurled it to the floor.
The ring shattered.The gemstone split.Fragments scattered like tiny,cruel teeth across the marble.
Something inside me twisted so hard it felt like my ribs cracked again.
Brian’s eyes burned with fury.“Why do you always hurt Adeline and then blame her?”he demanded.“Do you know intentionally harming someone can land you in prison for years?”
I stared at the broken pieces,at the ruin of something I once guarded like a vow.The man I had loved most was standing firmly at Adeline’s side again,defending her without a single question.
Slowly,a bitter smile spread across my mouth.
“You want to send me to the Pack enforcers because of this?”I said,voice shaking with cold anger.“Fine.Let them check the corridor runes.Let them pull the house footage.Let them see who staged this performance.”
I shoved Brian’s chest hard enough to make him take a half step back.
Then I raised my hand.
The slap cracked across Adeline’s face,sharp and undeniable,echoing through the stairwell like a verdict.
Adeline froze.Her fingers flew to her cheek.For a moment,she forgot to cry.
I leaned slightly forward,my voice low and viciously clear.“See that?This time,I really hit you.Now you can scream with proof.”
Brian’s shock lasted half a breath.
Then his palm struck my face with full force.
My head snapped to the side.Heat bloomed across my cheek.My vision flashed.
His eyes were cold when I looked back at him,colder than the night I was dragged into darkness.
“I haven’t even dealt with what happened last time,”he said,voice flat with contempt.“You’ve barely left the infirmary and you’re already targeting Adeline again.”
His gaze pinned me like prey.“I’ll send you to prison.You can stay there until you’ve reflected.When you finally understand what you’ve done,I’ll come get you.”
Before I could speak,his guards seized my arms.
Their hands were iron.Their auras pressed down,suppressing my wolf.They dragged me toward the doors of the manor as if I were a criminal.
Brian didn’t even look at me again.
He turned instead,gathered Adeline into his arms,and held her close.His expression softened with heartbreak as he murmured comfort into her hair.
It was almost impressive,how quickly he could become tender for the right woman.
At the Pack station,the cold stone and silver-lined bars smelled of disinfectant and old fear.The moment I was seated across the table,Brian arrived behind me like a storm that didn’t care who it soaked.
He tossed a confession document onto the table.
“Sign it,”he ordered,voice cold.
I picked up the pen.
My hand didn’t tremble.
I didn’t sign.
I ripped the paper into pieces instead,tearing slowly,deliberately,letting the sound of it fill the room like a warning.
Then I lifted my eyes to him and laughed under my breath,low and mocking.
“Brian,”I said quietly,“why should I sign something when I’ve done nothing wrong?”
My throat tightened,but I forced the words out anyway.“If you really want to put me in a cell,don’t hide behind excuses.I want to see how far you’ll go for Adeline.I want to see what you become when you decide I’m disposable.”
For a split second,his face looked…strained.Like something inside him tried to rise.
Then it vanished.He turned away sharply,jaw clenched.
“Lock her up,”he told the enforcers coldly.“Release her tonight.Let her reflect.”
He walked out without looking back.
I watched him leave,my eyes burning,my throat tight with tears I refused to shed in front of anyone who didn’t deserve them.
Between Adeline and me,he never hesitated.
Even when I was innocent,he always chose her.
And every choice he made pushed me deeper into the abyss,as if he wanted to see whether I would crawl back out…or finally stop trying.
In the cell’s dim light,my wolf stirred,not afraid this time.
Angry.
And awake.
