Seraphina Beaumont POV:
I knelt on the rug, the sheer force of the Alpha King's presence pressing down on me, making it hard to breathe.
"Who sent you?" Aldric's voice echoed in the silent room, a command wrapped in cold steel.
I shook my head, feeling tears blur my vision. "No... no one," I whispered, my voice breaking. "I was... I was lost..."
The excuse sounded flimsy, but I knew the potion coursing through my veins made my fear, my helplessness, so authentic that it would cloak the lie in a shroud of truth.
Aldric let out a cold, humorless laugh. "Lost? You got lost and ended up in my private chambers?"
He crouched down, his fingers gripping my chin, forcing my head up so I had to meet his gaze. "Look at me, little thing. My patience is wearing thin."
It was then that I heard it. The muffled sound of footsteps and hushed, angry voices from outside the door. Queen Genevieve. She was faster than I'd anticipated.
The opportunity had come. I had to make the situation... irreversible... before she came in.
A spark of calculated madness ignited within me. I wrenched my chin from his grasp and scrambled away, launching myself toward a decorative stone pillar in the corner of the room.
I never intended to hit it, of course. The gesture was all that mattered—the act of a desperate, honorable maiden choosing death over shame.
Aldric's reaction was faster than I could have dreamed. With a low growl, he moved like a black bolt of lightning, closing the distance in a heartbeat.
His powerful arm wrapped around my waist, yanking me back against his unyielding chest. "You want to die?" he roared, his hot breath fanning across my ear, sending an involuntary shiver down my spine.
This was the moment. I began to struggle violently in his arms, letting out a piercing scream that was a perfect symphony of terror and violation.
The sound was sharp enough to cut through the thick oak door, a clear message to everyone waiting outside.
From beyond the door, Genevieve's voice came, tight with suppressed fury. "Your Majesty! It is I, Genevieve! Open this door!"
I felt Aldric's body tense. He clearly hadn't expected his queen to arrive with an audience.
I took my cue and cried out louder, my voice filled with pathetic sobs, "Let me go! Please... let me go..."
My performance made everything before them appear all the more real.
Aldric's face was a mask of thunder. He shoved me away from him. "Be quiet!" he snarled.
Outside, Genevieve, hearing no reply, gave the order, "Break down the door!"
A flash of pure irritation crossed Aldric's face. He smoothed his tunic, strode to the door, and wrenched it open.
There stood the Queen, flanked by her guards. Behind her, a pale and trembling Clarissa. When Clarissa saw me, looking every bit the victim, she gasped and covered her mouth. She had certainly wished to see me like this, but not here.
Genevieve's eyes, sharp as daggers, raked over my pathetic form before landing on Aldric. "Aldric," she said, her voice shaking with rage, "you will give me an explanation!"
The guards behind her stared at the floor, refusing to witness the high drama unfolding.
With everyone now present, I seized the moment and spoke weakly, "The wine... I drank a glass of wine and started feeling strange..."
Before I could even utter Clarissa's name, she looked like she was about to faint. "No... it wasn't me... I don't know..." she stammered, her panicked eyes giving away the lie.
Genevieve understood at once. Her own foolish niece had orchestrated this disaster.
The Queen's body trembled with fury. She forced a semblance of calm and turned back to Aldric. "Your Majesty, this is all a misunderstanding. Clarissa is young and foolish, I will handle..."
She was trying to frame it as a petty squabble between women, a mess she could clean up by quietly disposing of me.
But she had misjudged the King. An Alpha King's pride, especially when his authority was questioned in his own territory, was a dangerous thing.
Before Genevieve could finish, Aldric cut her off, his voice dropping to a lethal calm. "Enough. All of you, get out."
The command stunned everyone into silence, including the Queen.
After Clarissa tearfully confessed to using a rare herb, the furious Queen slapped her across the face, the sound echoing in the tense hallway. The bond between aunt and niece was visibly fractured.
Aldric slammed the door shut, plunging the room back into a heavy silence.
He turned to face me, his ice-gray eyes filled with a complex, unreadable expression.
