Audry POV:
My question hung in the air, thick and heavy as smoke. The great hall, usually filled with the quiet bustle of a morning household, was utterly silent.
I felt my fingertips go cold where they rested in the folds of my skirt. Somewhere deep in my chest, the ghost of the girl I used to be was screaming at me to beg. I swallowed her down.
Bryson cleared his throat, shifting uncomfortably on the sofa. He straightened his spine, trying to reclaim the easy arrogance of the Alpha's heir. It didn't work. My directness had thrown him off his carefully rehearsed script.
"Audry," he began, his tone dripping with a condescending pity that made my skin crawl. "We need to talk. I... I care for you deeply. You know that. But it's as a sister. The Moon Goddess may have fated us, but my heart... my wolf... they don't see you as a mate."
As if on cue, Kaila's eyes welled up with shimmering, perfect tears. She let out a small, choked sob. "Oh, Audry, I'm so sorry," she whispered, her voice trembling. "I never meant for this to happen. We fought it, truly we did. But love... love can't be controlled."
The performance was so pathetic, so utterly transparent, that a laugh escaped my lips. It wasn't a sound of amusement. It was harsh and brittle, full of contempt.
The sound sliced through their melodrama. Bryson's face darkened with anger. "What's so funny?" he snapped. "Is your heart so cold you can't even take this seriously? We are trying to be respectful."
"Respectful?" I leaned forward. My eyes bored into his. "You think sneaking into my house with your mistress to deliver a prepared speech is respectful? You're not here out of respect, Bryson. You're here because you're a coward."
His face turned a blotchy red. "How dare you—"
"You want to end our engagement privately, because you don't have the courage to face the consequences of your actions. A public rejection would force you to state your reasons before the elders. It would expose you as an adulterer. It would stain the precious Stein family name. So you came here expecting me to cry, to accept this quiet little arrangement, and fade away so you and your whore can live happily ever after."
"That's enough!" Bryson shot to his feet, towering over me, trying to use his Alpha height and build to intimidate me. It was a tactic that used to make me shrink.
Not anymore. I didn't even flinch. I remained seated, looking up at him. "Or what, Bryson? You'll raise your voice? You can't even face a little truth."
Seeing her lover failing, Kaila launched Plan B. She slid off the sofa and fell to her knees before me, a perfect picture of supplication. Her hands reached for the hem of my red dress, fingers twisting in the silk. As she wept, I felt the sharp, precise scrape of her pinky nail against my calf—a quick, hidden threat only I could perceive. "Please, Audry," she wept. "Don't do this. Forgive us."
I recoiled as if her touch were acidic. "Don't put your hands on me," I said, pulling my leg back.
The commotion finally drew my father from his study. Arthur Chaney hurried down the stairs, his face a mask of alarm. He took in the scene—Bryson furious, Kaila on the floor, me radiating cold rage—and his expression immediately shifted to one of fawning panic.
"Audry! What is the meaning of this? Show some decorum!" he barked at me, not even asking what had happened. He then turned to Bryson, his face wreathed in an apologetic smile. "My boy, I am so sorry. She's just overwrought. Please, forgive her."
I watched my father bow and scrape before the boy who was actively destroying our family's honor, and the last flicker of warmth I might have held for him died, leaving nothing but ash.
"Father," I said, my voice flat.
He ignored me, still trying to placate Bryson. "Now, Audry," he said, turning back to me with a stern glare. "Whatever Bryson has proposed, you will accept it. We will not have any trouble with the Stein family."
Slowly, I rose from the armchair. I was shorter than my father, but as I stood before him, the power dynamic in the room shifted irrevocably. I felt taller. Stronger.
I let my gaze sweep over the three of them—the coward, the whore, and the fool.
"I will not," I announced, my voice ringing with absolute finality. "I will not be accepting a private dissolution of our engagement."
Bryson stared at me, his mouth agape. "What? Are you insane? You want to drag this out? To cling to me after I've told you I don't want you?"
I walked right up to him, close enough to see the confusion and fear in his eyes. "Oh, no, Bryson. I don't want you. I want a public rejection ceremony. A formal one. Presided over by the elders of both our packs."
The words landed like a bomb. Kaila gasped. My father's face went white with terror. A public ceremony was a binding, historic event. It would be recorded. The reasons for the rejection would be made public record for all time.
"You wouldn't," Bryson snarled, his voice a low threat. "If this goes public, you'll be the one humiliated. A rejected female. Your reputation will be in tatters."
"Let it be," I said with a careless shrug. "I'd rather be a woman of tatters than a woman who allows her name to be whispered about in shadows. I want the truth in the light, for everyone to see."
My father's eyes darted to the family crest above the mantel—the crossed silver wolves, Honor Endures carved beneath. A public rejection would stain that crest for generations. He saw his alliance with the Steins crumbling, and lost his temper. He raised his hand to slap me, to force me into submission as he always had.
His hand never landed.
I caught his wrist in a grip of iron. His eyes widened in shock at my speed, at the strength coiling in my arm. I squeezed, just enough to make him feel the pressure on the bone.
"You will never," I said, my voice dropping to a deadly whisper, "raise your hand to me again. If you do, I will burn this entire house, and your reputation, to the ground."
He stared into my eyes and saw not his daughter, but a stranger filled with a chilling resolve. He saw that I meant it. Pain and fear made him drop his arm.
I shoved his hand away from me in disgust and turned my back on him, my full attention on Bryson.
"This is your only choice," I said, delivering my ultimatum. "You will go now and summon the elders. If you refuse, I will personally take the evidence of your affair—and your bastard child—to your uncle at Stone River Pack. And we both know how Alpha Cameron Stein deals with family disgrace."
