"Did your dam never teach you proper pack manners?"
Raven's smile froze on her lips, then twisted into something far uglier. "My dam only taught me to seize what I desire."
She prowled closer, her voice dripping with venom like poison from a fang. "Do you truly believe your dead sire's little sacrifice—using his own life to bind Kael through guilt—will keep him at your side forever?"
My sire's death remains a wound no healer can touch.
"Speak those words again." My voice emerged low. Dangerous. A growl building beneath the surface.
Raven didn't flinch. "Your sire, that pathetic shade, deserved to be crushed beneath those wheels."
"If he hadn't thrust himself where he didn't belong, Kael and I would have completed our mating bond years ago. He traded his worthless existence to chain Kael to you—to force him into a guilt-bound mating, to torment his wolf's conscience for eternity!"
Crack.
I was on my feet before conscious thought caught up, my palm connecting with her face hard enough to snap her head sideways.
Raven clutched her cheek, eyes wide with disbelief. "You struck me?"
I backhanded her across the other cheek.
"You're damn right I did."
"Raven, five years ago you killed my sire. Now you stand here in my den and spit on his memory." I advanced toward her, feeling my wolf surge against my skin. "Did you truly believe pack law couldn't touch you?"
Hatred flickered in her pale eyes. "Nothing happened to me five years ago at the Tribunal. What can anyone do now? Kael will protect me. He would never allow me to face iron-bound confinement."
Then—like a wolf shifting between forms—her expression crumbled completely. Tears welled up as she dropped to her knees at my feet, baring her throat in false submission.
"Heir Ashvale, it's all my fault. I should never have fallen in love with Kael."
"You've already won everything. This position as his scent-partner is all I have left to survive. Why won't you simply let me go?"
The commotion drew other pack members from nearby dens. Whispers rippled through the gathering wolves.
"Isn't striking a lower-rank a bit excessive...?"
"She's already showing throat. Show some mercy."
Someone raised a communication device to record the scene.
Raven knelt there, trembling artfully, tears streaming down her face. "Heir Ashvale, please... I'm begging you..."
The den door burst open with enough force to rattle the frame.
Kael shoved me aside without so much as a glance in my direction.
My stomach slammed into the corner of the heavy oak table. Pain shot through my ribs, doubling me over as I gasped for breath.
He helped Raven rise with infinite care, his thumb brushing gently over the red marks blooming on her cheek. His scent wrapped around her protectively.
She collapsed into his arms, sobbing harder against his chest. "Kael, I was so frightened..."
He turned to look at me then. His eyes were winter frost. His Alpha dominance pressed against the room like a physical weight.
"Lyra, why must you be so vicious?"
"Look at yourself. You're behaving like a feral wolf who's lost all reason."
I straightened slowly, one hand pressed against my bruised side. "Kael, she said my sire deserved to die. Do you agree with her words?"
Something flickered in his amber gaze. Raven clung to him, crying, twisting the truth with practiced ease. "No, I only said it was an accident back then at the mating feast, and she just started striking me..."
Kael's stare grew colder still.
"It was an accident. Can you not let it rest?"
"Lyra, I'm the one who owes a debt to your bloodline—not her. Stop taking your grief out on Raven."
"Besides, I completed the mating bond with you. I've given you five years of my life. What more could you possibly want?"
"From now on, remain in your proper place and you'll always be the Alpha's mate of Stormhowl. But my pack business is none of your concern."
"Consider this my debt repaid—for everything your sire did for me when I had nothing."
He walked out with Raven cradled in his arms.
Never looked back.
By the time I finished meeting with the Tribunal Advocate, night had swallowed the territory.
At the boundary where forest met the main path, blinding lights seared my vision.
The screech of impact. My body launched into the air, then slammed into the frozen earth.
Every bone felt crushed beneath the weight of the blow. Pain everywhere, all at once, like fire consuming my flesh.
Blood surged up my throat. I tried to howl for help but no sound escaped.
Through the haze of agony, a dark figure approached, backlit by the harsh lights.
"Next time, don't interfere with wolves you cannot afford to challenge."
A pause. Then, quieter, almost a whisper against my failing ears:
"We killed your sire. We can kill you just as easily."
Footsteps faded into the darkness of the forest.
I lay on the frozen ground, unable to move, unable to shift, my wolf whimpering somewhere deep inside as consciousness began to slip away.
