Chapter 16 The Pack Matron's Plan Of Ruin
Aurelia
I had no appetite for breakfast, yet I had to pretend I loved it. While other shifters shifted into their wolf forms and hunted their prey at night, I ate food like every other normal human being.
I was distracted by the note I received last night. My father's magic had spread to the OnyxFang pack, and Zhayad didn't know yet.
I knew the right thing to do as his mate was to tell him, but not until I understood how deep the rot had gone, because the second he scented my father’s name on this, he’d think I was the leak.
The traitor. The wolfless witch feeding secrets straight to her warlock father. The dining hall itself smelled of roasted venison, and simmering resentment.
I sat at the long obsidian table like a ghost in a den of wolves, spooning soup into my mouth without actually tasting it.
The note burned behind my eyes no matter how hard I tried to shove it in the box behind my mind.
Irina’s voice cut through the low growl of conversation around me like a poisoned blade.
“Oh look, the witch finally lost her appetite.”
She sauntered around the table, swaying her hips.
As usual, her lips were curled in a smile that promised violence.
“Missing human flesh already, little witch? Or is it guilt that’s choking you?”
I kept my eyes on the bowl and said nothing. I knew she had to be roasting from the inside from not being able to crush me at the Varrick's anniversary like she threatened.
She leaned down, her palms flat on the table, close enough that her perfume, cloying roses and spite, flooded my senses.
“I have no idea what enchantment you wrapped around our Alpha’s cock,” she hissed, loud enough for the entire table to hear, “but thanks to you spreading your diseased legs, we’re now at war.”
My spoon froze halfway to my mouth at her last statement.
She straightened, grinning, satisfied now that she had my attention.
“Alpha Varrick of the NeonFang has declared a blood feud. And guess who’s standing right beside him in the war tent?”
Her smile turned vicious.
“Your bloodthirsty warlock father.”
The word landed like a slap on my cheek, then like a blade between the ribs.
Every head at the table snapped toward us. The growls started low, rumbling, then building.
I forced my hand to remain steady, set the spoon down with a soft clink, then looked up at her slowly.
“If you’re trying to make me flinch, Irina, you’ll have to try harder.”
Her eyes narrowed to slits.
“You think you can sit here playing Luna while your bloodline sells us out? Your father’s magic is already in our borders. I can smell it, I smelled it on you that day in the garden. It is rotten, oily, wrong. Just like you.”
A chair scraped back, then came the sound of heavy footsteps.
The air changed, thickened with ozone and fury. Zhayad appeared at the head of the table like a storm given form.
When had he even come in? Irina looked like she'd swallowed a cutlass. She clearly was just as shocked as I am.
Silence fell so fast around me it hurt. He didn’t look at Irina.
His eyes were locked on me, they were so intense that I thought he would undress me with just his eyes.
“Repeat that,” he said quietly to Irina.
Irina lifted her chin, her bravado flickering.
“I said—”
“I heard you.” He stepped closer.
The temperature dropped ten degrees, and I wondered just how it was possible for him to be able to command the atmosphere with just his aura.
His voice stayed soft, but the unmistaken lethal quality remained.
“I also heard you call my mate a witch. In front of the entire high table.”
Irina swallowed. “But she's a witch! I haven't—”
Zhayad moved like a blur. One second he was standing.
The next his hand was around her throat, lifting her onto her toes.
“My mate,” he said, each word carved from ice, “carries my mark. My scent. My future.”
His thumb pressed against her pulse. “Insult her again. Accuse her again. And I will rip your tongue out and feed it to the crows while you watch.”
Then he released her. She stumbled back, gasping, her face bloodless and white. She shot me a withering glare, her eyes hardening as if she was not done yet.
Alpha Zhayad turned to me, walking over in three long strides. He stood behind me and leaned down, his lips brushing my ear.
“Is there anything you're hiding from me, Aurelia?”
My lips trembled, my heart racing as ‘yes’ nearly slipped from my mouth.
“No.” I said finally.
“Good, because if you are, your punishment will be nothing like you've ever imagined.”
Alpha Zhayad’s heat lingered at my back long after he walked away. His whisper still scorched my ear:
‘If you are… your punishment will be nothing like you’ve ever imagined.’
The promise wrapped around my throat like velvet chains. My core clenched at the threat even as fear iced my veins. I had lied to my mate.
To the male who could rip the truth from my soul with one look.
I shoved up from the chair so fast the legs scraped stone.
Every eye in the hall followed me. Their eyes were sharp, suspicious, and hungry for weakness.
I didn’t care. I needed air. Space. Distance from the lie I’d just fed the one person who could destroy me with a single bite.
My feet carried me through arched corridors, past snarling tapestries and flickering torches, until I burst into the shadowed garden.
The air smelled of earth and secrets here. I sucked in a breath, but it was shaky, and too loud.
Then I froze. I was hearing voices coming from the alcove where the ivy clung thickest.
Ravina. And another female. She was tall, lean, and silver-streaked hair. One of the border sentinels. I just knew.
They stood close with their heads bent together like conspirators.
My heart slammed against my ribs. I melted against the cold stone wall, pressing my spine flat, holding my breath until my lungs burned.
Ravina’s hand moved too fast for the exchange to be an innocent one.
She slipped a small, dark vial into the other woman’s palm.
The sentinel snatched it, her fingers trembling just enough to betray nerves, and shoved it down the front of her dress, nestling it between her breasts.
“....make sure it reaches the eastern ridge by moonset,” Ravina hissed, her voice barely above a whisper. “Varrick’s scouts will be waiting. Tell them the veil is already thinning. The witch's father sends his regards.”
My blood turned to ice inside my veins. Ravina was working with my father?!
The sentinel nodded once, but lifted one finger.
“Will it be enough to weaken the Alpha’s wards? Enough for NeonFang to breach?”
Ravina’s smile was villainous. “Enough to make him question everything he thinks he knows about his precious little mate. When the breach happens… he’ll smell her father’s rot all over the borders. He’ll have no choice but to believe she betrayed him.”
A low, satisfied laugh slipped from her.
“And when he casts her out,or better, tears her apart himself, we’ll be ready. The pack needs a true Luna. Not some wolfless abomination playing queen.”
Ravina was planning to frame me.