Audry POV:
The threat of his uncle's name hung in the air, a palpable entity of fear. I saw it in the way Bryson's jaw clenched, the way a muscle jumped in his cheek. But his pride, foolish and fragile, wouldn't let him fold so easily.
He forced a sneer. "Evidence? You have nothing. You're bluffing, Audry. You're just a bitter, scorned woman making up lies."
Kaila, ever the loyal parrot, scrambled to her feet and hid behind Bryson, peering at me with wide, tearful eyes. "How could you be so cruel?" she whimpered. "To invent such a horrible lie just because you're jealous."
My father wrung his hands, his face slick with sweat. "Audry, enough of this madness! Apologize to Bryson at once!"
I ignored them both. My focus was a laser beam, and it was aimed directly at Kaila. I took a slow, deliberate step towards her. Then another. She flinched with each click of my heels on the marble floor.
I stopped directly in front of her, so close I could smell the cheap, cloyingly sweet floral perfume she always wore. I didn't look at her face. My gaze dropped, slowly, pointedly, until it rested on her flat stomach.
She saw where I was looking. A flicker of pure panic crossed her face. Her hand instinctively flew to cover her abdomen, a small, protective gesture that screamed guilt.
The corner of my mouth lifted. I leaned in, lowering my voice to a conspiratorial whisper, a secret shared just between the three of us.
"You're seven weeks along," I murmured. "The appointment at that private clinic across the county line was last Tuesday, wasn't it? Dr. Alistair. A discreet man, but his records, like all things, have a price."
The effect was instantaneous and absolute. It was as if I had detonated a bomb of silence.
Kaila's face drained of all color, leaving it a pasty, sickly white. Her jaw dropped, and a strangled gasp escaped her lips. Her eyes, wide with horror, stared at me as if I were a monster who had just crawled out of her darkest nightmare.
Bryson looked like he'd been struck by lightning. His arrogant posture crumbled, his shoulders slumping. He pointed a trembling finger at me, his mouth opening and closing, but no sound came out. He was a fish, gasping for air on dry land.
Kaila's legs gave out. She crumpled to the floor in a heap of red-rimmed eyes and shattered lies.
My father, sensing the catastrophic shift in the room, stammered, "What... what is she talking about? What clinic?"
I straightened up, my voice returning to its clear, carrying tone, ensuring every word echoed in the cavernous hall. "I'm talking about the bastard child of a Stein heir, conceived with a low-born mistress while he was engaged to me. If you do not agree to a public ceremony, right now, I will ensure every Pack on this continent knows about it by sundown."
Bryson's psychological dam finally broke. The fear of his uncle was greater than any pride he possessed. With a roar of pure desperation, he lunged—not running, but a true, beast-like pounce, dropping to all fours and launching himself at me with his shifting claws inches from my lips. I caught the stench of his fear—sweat, stale wine, and last night's cologne—and felt the wind of his charge lift the hair at my temples.
BOOM.
The sound was like a thunderclap inside the house. The massive, double oak doors of the great hall didn't just open—they exploded inward, ripped from their hinges as if hit by a battering ram. Splinters of wood rained down on the marble floor.
And with the destruction came a presence.
It was a wave of raw, suffocating power. A top-tier Alpha's aura, so potent it felt like the air itself was turning to ice, crushing my lungs, making it impossible to breathe. The temperature in the hall plummeted.
My father cried out and collapsed to his knees, his body trembling uncontrollably, utterly subdued by the sheer force of will.
Bryson froze mid-lunge, his face a mask of absolute, soul-deep terror. The color drained from his face, leaving it the color of ash.
Kaila, already on the floor, let out a pathetic whimper and pressed herself flat against the rug, as if trying to disappear into the fibers.
My own chest felt tight, a band of steel squeezing my ribs. The oldest alarm in my body—the one meant for hunters and venomous snakes—shrieked at the base of my spine. The back of my neck prickled, as though invisible fingers had closed around it, demanding submission. I didn't submit. I had faced death. I had felt my lifeblood drain onto cold dirt. This pressure, this fear, was nothing compared to that. I gritted my teeth, planted my feet, and forced myself to remain standing. I turned to face the door.
A figure stood silhouetted against the bright morning light, a tall, broad-shouldered specter of death. He stepped over the threshold, into the hall, and the shadows fell away.
He wore a perfectly tailored black suit that did nothing to hide the lethal power coiled in his frame. His hair was as dark as a moonless night, and his eyes... his eyes were chips of obsidian, sharp and predatory. He radiated an aura of cold cedar and something metallic, like the smell of a blade before it strikes.
It was him. Cameron Stein. The Alpha of Stone River Pack. The tyrant. Bryson's uncle.
He did not speak immediately. His merciless gaze swept first over his kneeling nephew, then the weeping girl flattened on the floor, then my trembling father. Only then did his eyes return to me—slowly, as if weighing whether I was worth his next breath.
He took another slow step into the room, his polished shoes crunching on the debris of the door. When he spoke, his voice was a low, magnetic rumble that vibrated through the floor, through my bones. It was calm, yet it carried the promise of utter annihilation.
"I heard it wasn't a simple misunderstanding," he said. His eyes locked on mine. "I heard there was a child. Tell me. Who is pregnant?"
