Natalie’s POV The Lodge suddenly broke into chaos; sounds collided from every direction, layered voices cutting into one another, chairs grinding back against stone, and claws scraping unintentionally free of skin as Alphas surged upright. Power, anger, and confusion filled the air. “How dare you speak to your Alpha that way?” “She dared to challenge the Keeper.” “Does she have a death sentence?” “What is going on?” Sharon stumbled backward as her heel slipped, her perfect posture collapsing in an instant, strands of hair clinging to her damp face. “No. No, no, no,” she cried. “Jensen, I can’t. I’ve been poisoned. She wants me blind. She wants me dead.” Her voice fractured into something thin and trembling. “I can’t even see properly; everything hurts. Everything is spinning; she planned this. She wants to take my eyes.” Jensen moved instantly, planting himself in front of her, heat pouring off his body as his eyes glowed with his wolf straining close to the surface. “Enough.” The single word cracked through the noise, forcing the room into a tense, fractured quiet as every gaze snapped between him and me. “My pack recognizes Sharon Summers as the Keeper,” he said, his voice sharpened into something cold and lethal. “This challenge is rejected. The ceremony is over.” “Over?!” an Alpha from Blackwood roared, climbing onto a stone bench. “You just heard a confession of torture in your territory. You don’t get to bury that.” Another voice rang from the balcony. “If she’s real, let her read.” “Prove it.” The chant ignited, spreading faster than control could follow. Read. Read. Read. Quincy Summers surged forward, hands shaking. “My daughter is fragile. You animals want blood.” A female Alpha laughed sharply from the northern tier. “Funny how sickness only appears when proof is requested.” The noise became louder. Jensen raised his hand again. “Enough.” No one listened. The stranger in charcoal stepped forward, his voice slicing cleanly through the pressure without rising. “You cannot stop this,” he said calmly. “Not after what was confessed here.” “This is pack business,” Jensen snapped. “It became Council business when you tried to silence it.” “You will stand down.” “I am standing where truth requires.” Sharon clutched Jensen’s arm, her voice collapsing into desperation. “You promised you would protect me.” “There will be no test,” Jensen said. An Elder rose slowly from the Council seats. “You do not control a challenge once it is issued, Alpha Jensen.” “I control my pack.” “And we control the Accord.” Guards began moving toward the pedestal. Sharon saw them. “No.” Two blocked her parents before they could reach her, while another gestured toward the stone stand where the scroll waited, ancient and silent. “Stand down,” Jensen ordered. They hesitated. They did not obey. “You can’t do this to me,” Sharon sobbed. “Jensen.” The scroll was pressed into her hands, the runes shimmering faintly as if alive beneath torchlight. The Lodge leaned forward as one, breathing as a single creature. Sharon stared at the page, lips parting. Nothing came out. A murmur crawled through the hall. “Read.” Jensen suddenly lunged forward, snatching the scroll from her grasp and slamming it back onto the pedestal, ignoring the shouts erupting around him. Before I could step away, his hand closed around my wrist. Sharp pain flared instantly where his fingers dug into my skin as if carving a claim. For one stupid heartbeat, I waited for him to realize what he was doing, to loosen his grip, to remember my name instead of my usefulness. “Come with me. Now,” he hissed. “Let go.” The heat of his hold turned my stomach, not with fear but with disgust. I stared at his fingers cutting into my skin and wondered how I had ever confused possession for protection, how easily I had learned to be grateful for a cage simply because it had not killed me. I twisted uselessly, because I was wolfless and he was an Alpha, and the difference between us had always been written in blood and authority. His grip tightened. He pulled. The Lodge blurred, not from motion, but from the sudden, vicious clarity of who he truly was and who I had always been to him. That was when the stranger moved. He did not rush or bare his teeth or snarl a warning. He simply stepped between us, and the space itself seemed to lock into place. Light caught the inside of his wrist as he reached out, revealing a faded, intricate tattoo etched into his skin, a pattern that stirred something sharp and unsettled beneath my ribs even though I could not yet place why. “Alpha Jensen,” he said calmly, “she told you to let go.” His hand closed around Jensen’s wrist. Before anything else could happen, Sharon swayed. Her body slackened. Then she fell. Gasps tore through the Lodge. Jensen caught her before she hit the floor. “Sharon.” His voice broke. “Stay with me.” He looked up, eyes burning straight through me. “Call the doctor,” he barked, looking around. The room surged into motion. He lifted her into his arms and walked past me, shoulder striking mine hard enough to sting. “If anything happens to her,” he murmured, venom low and precise, “I will destroy you.” The doors slammed shut behind him. No one followed. No one said my name. No one even spared me a glance. The room slowly began to move again; low voices returned. Guards stepped back into place. The Council turned back to how it was before anything happened. I remained where he left me. My hands trembled at my sides. I curled my fingers into my palms, nails biting through fabric, grounding myself in the small, clean pain of it. The stranger was still there. Silent, watching me as if I had not already been dismissed by the room. Something inside my chest loosened, then broke. It was the last thin thread that believed I would ever be chosen without begging. I exhaled once. Turned. Grabbed his tie and pulled him down to my level. “Sleep with me.” His eyes darkened instantly. “What?” “You heard me,” I said, my voice steady even as something raw burned behind it. “If you don’t want me, I’ll find someone who does.” For a moment he did not move. Then his expression shifted into something sharp and unreadable as he lifted me clean off the floor without another word.