Seraphina POV:
The slap was fast. Wolf speed is a blur to the human eye, but I saw it coming. I could have dodged. My reflexes were honed by training with the Royal Guard since I was a pup. But I didn't move.
I had to play the part until the very end.
*Smack.*
The force of her hand snapped my head to the side. A sharp sting radiated across my cheek, and I tasted the metallic tang of copper as my lip split against my teeth.
Silence descended on the lobby. Striking a human was considered low class, even for wolves, but nobody moved to stop her.
I slowly turned my head back to face her. I didn't cry out. I didn't hold my cheek. I just stared at her.
"Is that the best you can do?" I asked softly.
Lola's eyes widened in surprise. She expected tears. She expected begging.
"You pathetic little thing," she sneered. She pulled out her phone. "You want to know where Dante is? You want to know what he thinks of you?"
She shoved the screen in my face. It was a text thread with Dante.
*Dante: Don't worry about Seraphina. She's just a tool. Useful, like a stapler. But she has no soul. She's empty.*
*Lola: But she's been with you for seven years...*
*Dante: Seven years of boredom. She can't shift, Lola. She can't run with me. And most importantly, she can't breed strong pups. I need a wolf. I need you.*
The words burned themselves into my retinas. *Like a stapler.* *Can't breed.*
For seven years, I had suppressed my Alpha aura. I had taken suppressants that made me sick. I had endured the pitying looks of the Pack members who thought I was a barren, broken defect. I did it all to prove that love was the strongest force in the universe.
I was wrong. Power is the strongest force. And I had given mine up for a boy who saw me as office supplies.
"He never loved you," Bella chimed in from the stairs, her voice dripping with malice. "You don't even have a scent. You smell like nothing. Like a rogue's leftovers."
"Actually," I said, my voice steady, "seven years ago, Dante followed me home like a puppy in heat. He couldn't stay away."
"He was young and confused," Lola scoffed. "He probably smelled your shampoo."
"No," I corrected her. "He smelled the power I keep locked away. His wolf knew what I was, even if his human brain was too stupid to understand. He was attracted to the royalty in my blood."
Lola laughed, a harsh, barking sound. "Royalty? You? Look at you. You're bleeding from a little slap. A real Luna would have ripped my arm off by now."
She took a step closer, letting her aura flare. It was weak, a damp, suffocating pressure like a wet wool blanket. It was the aura of a low-ranked wolf trying to punch above her weight.
"This is a world of predators, Seraphina," Lola whispered, leaning into my ear. "And you are prey. Dante is mine. This building is mine. And you are trespassing."
I wiped the blood from my lip with my thumb and looked at the smear of red on my skin.
"You have no idea what a predator looks like, Lola," I said. "But you're about to find out."
Lola's face twisted in rage. She wasn't used to humans talking back. She raised her hand again, this time with her claws fully extended. She aimed for my throat.
