Ignatz POV
The silence that followed her departure screamed louder than her roar had.
Glass littered the floor, glittering like jagged diamonds.
The air still tasted of ozone and lilies—a scent so powerful, so undeniably *her*, that it made my knees weak. My wolf was howling inside me, a sound of absolute, jagged despair.
*Mate. Mate. Royal. Mate.*
"She... she's a Foley?" Evelyn whispered, her voice trembling like a leaf in a storm. "That's impossible. She was a scrub. A nobody."
"Shut up," I whispered. My hands were shaking violently at my sides.
Genevieve Foley. The daughter of the Alpha Supreme. The most powerful wolf lineage in the world.
And I had treated her like a slave.
I had killed her child.
"Ignatz," my mother stammered, her face the color of ash. "We have to... we have to spin this. We can say she was an impostor. A witch!"
Before I could answer, the sky outside turned an unnatural, bruising black.
A pressure dropped onto the pack grounds. It wasn't atmospheric. It was biological. It was primal.
It was the crushing weight of an Alpha aura so potent that the Omegas in the room instantly collapsed, unconscious before they hit the ground.
The double doors of the banquet hall were blown off their hinges with a deafening crack.
Standing in the smoke was a man. He was a towering figure, with silver-streaked hair and eyes that burned with the cold fury of a dying star.
Behind him stood a phalanx of Elite Royal Guards, their armor gleaming under the chandeliers.
Arlington Foley. The Alpha Supreme.
"KNEEL."
He didn't shout. He didn't have to. The Command slammed into us like a freight train.
Every wolf in the room—Warriors, Elders, even me—slammed into the floor. My forehead cracked against the tile. I couldn't move a muscle. The power was absolute, paralyzing my very marrow.
Arlington walked into the room, his boots crunching ominously on the broken glass. He stopped in front of me.
"Where is she?" he asked. His voice was terrifyingly calm.
"She... she disappeared," I choked out, fighting the pressure just to draw breath. "She shifted... and vanished."
"I felt the bond break," Arlington said. He looked down at me with a disgust that made me want to die. "I felt my grandson's life snuff out."
Meredith let out a pathetic whimper.
Arlington turned his gaze to her. "You."
He pointed a finger. Two Royal Guards moved in a blur of speed, hauling my mother up by her hair.
"The doctor," Arlington commanded.
Another guard dragged Dr. Thorne from the crowd. The little man was sobbing, the stench of urine spreading around him.
"She made me do it!" Thorne screamed, his voice cracking under the Alpha's crushing aura. "Meredith! She said the baby was a bastard! She ordered the procedure!"
"Procedure," Arlington repeated the word like it was poison. "You cut a royal heir out of my daughter's womb."
He didn't wait for an answer. He waved his hand dismissively. "Take them. If they die before we reach the interrogation cells, I will hold you responsible."
Then he looked at me. "And you. Ignatz Turner."
"Sir, I didn't know," I pleaded, tears mingling with the blood on my face. "She hid it! She lied!"
"She was testing you," Arlington said, his voice devoid of mercy. "To see if you were worthy of her soul. You proved you weren't even worthy to wash the dirt from her feet."
"I hereby strip you of the title of Alpha," Arlington announced.
The words carried magic. I felt the Alpha power ripping out of my chest, tearing away like a limb, leaving me hollow and weak. "Your pack is now under Royal jurisdiction."
Suddenly, a howl cut through the night. It came from the forest.
A man ran into the hall. He was wearing the uniform of the Royal Enforcers, but his eyes were wild.
Caleb Meyer. I knew him. He was a Gamma from a neighboring pack who had joined the Royals.
"Alpha Supreme!" Caleb shouted, ignoring the protocol. "I found her! Her scent trail... it led to the teleportation anchor point in the woods. She's safe. She's back at the Royal Estate."
Arlington’s shoulders slumped slightly. The killing pressure lifted just a fraction.
"She is alive?"
"Yes," Caleb said. His face was flushed, his eyes shining with an intensity I didn't understand. "And... Alpha... I felt it."
"Felt what?"
"The pull," Caleb said, clutching his chest as if his heart were trying to escape. "The Second Chance."
I froze.
A Second Chance Mate. The Moon Goddess’s way of apologizing for a failed first mate. It was rare. Almost mythical.
"She is my mate, Alpha," Caleb said, his voice ringing with devotion. "And I will burn this world to ash if anyone touches her again."
I watched them. I watched the power, the loyalty, the love.
And I lay there in the broken glass, an Alpha of nothing, realizing that my personal hell was just beginning.
