Chapter 3

"She misplaced her cup again!" Wendy swiped the bone china cup off the table, shards scattering at my feet.

"This is my seat."

I looked at her, my voice low but edged with steel. "You don't get to tell me where my cup goes."

Wynne stepped over the broken pieces, deliberately bumping my tray. Hot soup splashed onto the carpet.

She shrieked, "You burned me! Did you do that on purpose?"

"You walked into me. Your hands, your fault. Who are you blaming?"

I set down the now-empty tray and met her eyes. "Trying to play the victim? You've got the wrong person."

Alpha William emerged from the study just as Wendy collapsed onto the floor in tears.

"Alex pushed me!" she pointed toward the staircase, sobbing. "I almost fell!"

"The camera's right there."

I nodded toward the wall-mounted surveillance. "Shall we check the footage and see who really slipped?"

"Still trying to talk your way out?" Wynne clung to Alpha William’s arm. "Alpha, a woman this cruel deserves to be punished!"

Alpha William frowned at me. "Can’t you just go easy on them for once?"

"Why should I?" My voice trembled — not from fear, but from the cold realization sinking into my bones.

"What do you want to do to her?" he asked Wendy and Wynne, ignoring me completely.

Wendy immediately smiled. "Kick her out! That would make us happy."

"Yeah, the farther the better." Wynne trailed a finger down William’s neck.

I watched his throat move as he swallowed. That was the moment I knew there was no hope.

He had never been like this before — even at our worst fights, he would at least hear me out.

That night, he brought me a glass of warm water. "Drink this and go to sleep."

His voice was unusually gentle.

"What’s in it?"

I didn’t take the glass. I stared into his eyes. "William, look at me."

He avoided my gaze and nudged the cup closer. "Stop overthinking. It’s just water."

I drank it. Not because I trusted him, but because I wanted to see just how cruel he could be.

Before I lost consciousness, I saw him standing by the bed.

When I woke, an icy wind was slicing down my throat.

I was lying in the snow with nothing but a thin coat.

Snowflakes landed on my lashes and instantly froze.

"You’re awake?" a voice called out — it was an Omega driver. "Alpha William said the northern territory suits you better."

The car taillights disappeared into the blizzard.

I tried to move, but my limbs felt like lead. My eyelids grew heavier.

Later, someone touched my face.

"Still alive?" A soft voice reached my ears.

I tried to speak but could only let out raspy gasps.

My fingers twitched, pain slicing through them.

"Oh my god..." The person pulled me into their arms. They smelled of snow and herbs. "Hang on."

The fire crackled in the small cabin.

Even wrapped in blankets, I couldn’t stop shivering.

The Omega who rescued me dabbed herbal water onto my hands and feet with cloth. Every touch felt like scalding water.

"It hurts..." I whimpered, and my mother’s face flickered in my mind.

Before she left, she’d handed me a puppy with droopy ears. "Alex, his name is Lucky."

Her voice was soft. "He’ll keep you company."

The memory of the puppy licking my palm, once ticklish, now collided with the sting of frostbite.

I began to cry, muttering "Mama" over and over as my tears froze into icy beads in the blanket.

Back at the castle, Alpha William had the fireplace blazing.

"She won’t bother you anymore," he told Wendy as he handed her a glass of wine. "It’s all taken care of."

Wynne, barefoot on the rug, picked up the comb I left on the vanity. "Really? She was so fierce. What if she comes back?"

"So what if she does?"

Alpha William wrapped an arm around them both, chin resting on Wendy’s head. "With me here, she can’t do a thing. Relax and settle in."

Wendy smiled in the mirror, her fingers brushing the new necklace around her neck — recast from my shattered diamond ring.

"This should’ve happened long ago. She was all bark. And now? You got rid of her."

Wynne leaned close to William’s ear. "You think she’ll freeze to death?"

He pinched her cheek, tone casual. "This time, no one’s coming to save her."

Their laughter rang against the crystal chandelier, shattering into cruel echoes.

Miles away, in the frozen cabin, I coughed up blood in a half-conscious daze.

Lucky... my little puppy...

I called his name in my heart, but even his face was beginning to blur.