No.5

Kaden POV

The glass in my hand turned to dust.

Shards of crystal bit into my palm, drawing blood that healed almost instantly, but the physical sting was nothing compared to the inferno raging in my chest.

Alpha… you need to see this.

Jared's voice in my head had been tentative, fearful. Now I knew why.

I stood on the iron balcony overlooking the Grand Hall, my knuckles white as I gripped the railing. Below me, the sea of guests had parted, creating a wide circle around a couple gliding across the obsidian floor.

It wasn't a ghost. It wasn't the broken, weeping wretch my mother had described to me just this morning.

It was a goddess bathed in blood.

Aline.

She was wearing red. Not just any red, but a deep, violent crimson that clung to her frame like a second skin. The silk slit high up her thigh, exposing legs I hadn't touched in years. Her hair was swept up, revealing the graceful curve of her neck—the neck I had refused to mark, now bared for another Alpha to stare at.

And he was staring.

Deric Sullivan held her as if she were made of spun glass. His hand rested on the small of her back—my mate's back. His scent, a cloying mix of sandalwood and ocean salt, was drifting up to the balcony, mingling with hers. It was a desecration.

MINE!

My wolf slammed against my ribcage, clawing to get out, to tear Sullivan's throat out with his teeth. The command had ripped from my throat before I could stop it, silencing the music, silencing the room.

But she didn't cower. She looked up.

Her eyes met mine. There was no love in them. No desperate plea for my affection. There was only a cold, hollow defiance.

Rosalind lied, I snarled under my breath. My mother had told me Aline was refusing to eat, rotting in her room, waiting for me to beg for forgiveness. But the woman down there wasn't rotting. She was burning bright enough to blind me.

I turned from the railing, my cape swirling around me like a storm cloud. "Jared, clear a path. Now."

I didn't wait for an answer. I marched toward the grand staircase, intent on dragging her out of that hall and locking her away until she remembered who she belonged to.

Kaden!

A soft hand caught my arm just as I reached the top of the stairs. Cori Mullins appeared, looking up at me with wide, doe-like eyes. She was dressed in silver, shimmering and delicate, the perfect contrast to the aggressive red stain on the dance floor.

Darling, please, she whispered, her voice dripping with concern. She stepped into my space, her fingers stroking the tension in my bicep. "Don't let her ruin your night. Look at her... parading herself around like that. She's just doing this for attention. She wants you to make a scene."

My jaw clenched. Cori's touch was soothing, a balm on a burn, but my eyes kept darting back to the dance floor below.

She is dancing with Sullivan, I growled, the words tasting like bile.

Because she knows it hurts you, Cori cooed, linking her arm through mine. "Don't give her the satisfaction of seeing you lose control. Show her she doesn't matter."

Her logic was sound, twisting into my brain and cooling the red haze just enough for me to think. If I dragged Aline out screaming, I would look like a tyrant. If I ignored her... I would look like a King.

Fine, I muttered. I placed my hand over Cori's on my arm, a silent claim. "Let's go."

We descended the staircase together. The crowd watched us, their gazes darting between me and the couple in the center of the room. Every step felt like walking on hot coals.

I reached the bottom floor, my eyes locking onto Aline again. She was spinning now, the red silk flaring out. Deric leaned in, whispering something in her ear.

And then, she did the unforgivable.

She laughed.

It wasn't a polite, courtly titter. It was a genuine smile that lit up her face, erasing the gaunt shadows of her cheeks. It was a smile I hadn't seen in three years. A smile she had never given me since the day I rejected our bond in all but words.

The sight of it felt like a silver dagger twisting in my gut.

She was happy. In his arms. In my house.

The air around me crackled with ozone. The floorboards beneath my boots creaked under the pressure of my aura.

Cori sensed my control slipping. She leaned in close, her lips brushing my ear, her voice a poisonous caress.

Look how she smiles for him, Kaden. A real smile, she murmured, her tone laced with a pity that made me want to kill something. "It's as if... as if his presence is healing the very soul you thought was broken."

The tether on my sanity snapped.

Healing her? No. He was stealing her. And I would burn this entire pack house to the ground before I let another male enjoy what was fated to be mine.

No.6

Kaden POV

It wasn't the polite, tight-lipped expression she had worn for the last three years of our miserable marriage. It was radiant, genuine, and blindingly bright. It transformed her face, erasing the gaunt hollows of her cheeks that my mother had so gleefully described.

My wolf roared in my head, a sound of pure, unadulterated fury. She smiles for him? After killing our pup?

The betrayal tasted like ash in my mouth. She wasn't grieving. She wasn't rotting in her room, begging the Moon Goddess for forgiveness. She was here, in the heart of my territory, flaunting her freedom in the arms of a rival Alpha.

I can't believe she's doing this to you, Cori whispered, her voice trembling as she clung to my arm. We reached the edge of the dance floor, the music swelling around us. "On your night, Kaden. After everything... after the pup..."

Her words were precision strikes, targeting the rawest wounds in my soul. The mention of the child—the heir she had supposedly discarded just a week ago—turned my vision red.

She has no shame, I growled, my voice low and dangerous.

She wants to hurt you, Cori murmured, pressing her soft body against my side, her scent of vanilla and artificial sweetness trying to mask the rage rolling off me. "Don't let her see that it's working. Dance with me. Show her she means nothing."

I didn't look at Cori, but I pulled her onto the obsidian floor. My hand splayed across her back, claiming her, but my gaze remained locked on Aline like a predator stalking prey.

The orchestra transitioned into the Dance of Allegiance, a traditional rhythm where pack members rotated partners to show unity. I watched as Aline moved from Deric to an Elder, and then to a visiting Beta. To each of them, she offered that same polite, graceful nod. That same soft curve of her lips.

Look how easily she gives her smiles away, Cori cooed, her head resting against my chest, her eyes following my line of sight. "It's as if... as if his presence is healing the very soul you thought was broken."

Healing her?

The thought snapped the last tether of my restraint. No. Deric Sullivan wasn't healing her. He was stealing what was mine. Even if I didn't want her, even if I rejected her, she was still my mate. Her smiles, her scent, her body—they were fated to me. Seeing her distribute them so freely to these lesser males was an insult to the Moon Goddess herself.

I was about to tear away from Cori and storm across the floor when the music shifted abruptly. The heavy drums of the ritual began.

A swap! The Master of Ceremonies' voice boomed, not just through the speakers, but echoing in the Mind-Link of every wolf in the room. As the Moon Goddess wills!

Two blinding spotlights cut through the dim ambiance of the hall.

The first beam of light crashed down on the far side of the room, illuminating Aline. She froze, her hand still resting on a visiting Elder's shoulder, her eyes widening like a deer caught in headlights.

The second beam hit me.

The silence in the Grand Hall was deafening. The air crackled with ozone and static electricity. Fate, it seemed, had a cruel sense of humor.

According to the ancient laws of the Gala, the chosen pairs must dance. To refuse was to insult the pack's traditions.

Cori stiffened in my arms, sensing the shift. Slowly, I untangled myself from her grip. My eyes met Aline's across the expanse of the floor. I saw the color drain from her face, saw the way her breath hitched.

Good. She should be afraid.

I adjusted my cuffs, the movement sharp and predatory. I didn't walk toward her; I prowled. The crowd scrambled to get out of my way, leaving a clear path between the Alpha and his estranged, traitorous mate.

I was going to dance with her. And I was going to make sure she remembered exactly who held the leash.

No.7

Kaden POV

The distance between us was less than twenty feet, yet crossing it felt like traversing a battlefield I had conquered long ago. The crowd parted like water, their eyes wide with a mixture of reverence and terror. They knew better than to stand between an Alpha and his prey.

As I closed in on the woman in red, the present moment blurred, overlaid by the ghost of a memory from three years ago.

It was on this very floor, under these same crystal chandeliers. It was the night of my ascension. Aline had approached me then, not in crimson silk, but in a drab, ill-fitting grey dress that hung off her frame like a sack. She had looked up at me with wide, hopeful eyes—eyes that hadn't yet learned to hate me—and asked, in a voice barely above a whisper, if she could have a dance.

I remembered the sneer that had curled my lip. I remembered the cold, venomous words I had sent down our newly formed bond, ensuring no one else could hear the cruelty.

''An Omega thinks she deserves the spotlight at my ascension? You are an embarrassment to the Warren name. Go back to the shadows where you belong."

She had crumbled then. Shoulders slumped, head bowed, she had retreated while my mother and sister snickered behind their champagne flutes. She hadn't danced that night. She hadn't danced for three years.

Until tonight.

Until she decided to drape herself in the color of sin and spin in the arms of my rival.

My jaw clenched, grinding my teeth together. She wasn't that timid girl anymore. This was a calculated insult. A public declaration of war.

I reached the center of the floor. Deric Sullivan stood his ground for a fraction of a second too long, having moved back to stand protectively near Aline. His eyes, dark and challenging, met mine.

Alpha Warren, Deric nodded, his tone polite but lacking the submission required in my territory.

Alpha Sullivan, I returned, my voice a low growl. "I believe this is my dance."

I didn't wait for his consent. I reached out, my hand clamping around Aline's wrist. I yanked her from his grasp with enough force to make her stumble, pulling her flush against my chest.

Zap.

The sparks erupted instantly. The Electric Touch of the mate bond sizzled where our skin connected, a cruel biological trick designed to make me want her. My wolf paced in my mind, confused by the conflicting urges to bite her throat or mark it.

I ignored the beast. I placed a hand on her waist—firm, possessive, bruising—and forced her into the rhythm of the waltz.

She was trembling. Good.

I leaned in close, my lips brushing the shell of her ear, creating the illusion of intimacy for the watching crowd. But in the private, mental space of our Mind-Link, I unleashed my fury.

''Three years, Aline. I didn't even know you could dance. How long have you been saving this performance for another Alpha?"

Her body went rigid in my arms. She didn't look at me; her gaze was fixed on the knot of my tie, her face drained of all color. Up close, the makeup couldn't hide the dark circles under her eyes or the sharpness of her cheekbones. She looked fragile, like glass ready to shatter.

But I wasn't moved. I was incensed.

I inhaled deeply, and my anger spiked. Underneath the soft, sweet scent of wild roses that was naturally hers, there was the musk of sandalwood and ocean salt. Deric. She smelled like him.

My grip on her waist tightened painfully.

''You reek of him," I snarled in her mind. ''You kill my heir, discard our pup like trash, and a week later you're here, wearing red, rubbing yourself against a rival Alpha? Do you have no shame?"

She flinched, a small, broken sound escaping her throat. For a second, her eyes lifted to mine. I expected to see defiance, or perhaps the tears she used to shed so freely.

Instead, I saw... nothing.

Her eyes were two dark voids. No fear. No anger. No hope. Just a terrifying, hollow silence. It was the look of someone who was already dead but hadn't stopped moving.

''Is this what you wanted?" I pushed harder, needing to break through that apathy, needing to see her hurt the way my pride hurt. ''To make me jealous? To make me notice you?"

I spun her around, the movement sharp and aggressive. The music swelled, masking the violence of our interaction.

''Don't look at me with those dead eyes. You think this little stunt will win you favor? You overestimate yourself, Omega. You are mine to break, not his to fix."

I waited for her to beg. I waited for the apology. I held the leash tight, convinced I had finally put her back in her place.

I had no idea that the leash had already snapped.