Chapter 33

Someone made a move to leave or punch him, it was barely a tremble of movement several feet behind Neil.

“Don’t move.”

I shuddered, flinching as the command settled, but somehow missed me. Then... I realized that the compulsions, none of them, hadn’t actually been directed at me, but cast across the group of Brightclaw members, including Tyler’s sister. I looked up, squinting to see Neil coming towards me, glaring at the Brightclaw wolves as he passed, stepping over the one still on the ground. His eyes blazed gold, his posture calm but radiating authority. He hadn’t shifted, hadn’t raised his voice, but the compulsion in his words still crackled in the air like lightning.

My heart thundered in my ears, the world around me shrinking until all I could see was Neil, coming towards me with this aura of raw power that almost shimmered in the air.

It should have been impossible. Power that didn’t belong in someone so young. Something in me stirred, almost waking at the energy pulsing off him. The call to fight that had filled me earlier went soft and quiet. My whole body started to relax, but my mind raced, blood buzzing in my ears.

This level of control and power wasn’t normal. Not for someone under forty.

The Brightclaw wolves still surrounding me twitched like they were trying to resist him. Trying to push back. But their bodies betrayed them not even moving, gazes dropping. Tyler’s sister gritted her teeth, eyes flashing with humiliation as her head dipped slightly.

I should’ve felt good, instead, I just felt fearful as Neil reached me. His eyes seemed pained, but resigned as he crouched down beside me, looking into my face. This close, I could see the little flecks of blood red in his eyes that were melting into that gold. The thing that Darla had left unsaid, the tool he’d been twirling between his fingers, the collection of little things I had noticed about Neil over the years flashed through my mind.

He reached to touch me, I drew back, shaking my head. He retracted his hand, seemingly hurt, but understanding. I took his hand gripping it firmly and meeting his eyes.

You’ve already revealed too much.

His eyes widened. The gold in his eyes grew brighter, and I knew he understood. He squeezed back

And then Vivian arrived, her voice cutting through the air.

“What is going on here?” she snapped, shoving past a stunned onlooker as if she had every right to stomp onto a battlefield mid-fight in four-inch heels.

Her eyes landed on me first, filled with fury and disgust. “Of course. Of course, it’s you.”

She opened her mouth to continue, but then she saw Neil.

Her whole expression stuttered. “Neil?” she said, voice high and sweet like she hadn’t been seething a second ago. “I didn’t realize you were here. What a—”

“Attacked,” Neil said, turning his gaze on her. Cold. Sharp. Final.

“What?”

“Members of your pack, Lady Brightclaw, have attached a ward of your father’s,” Neil said slowly. “The sister of one of your gammas if I heard right. Tyler’s sister.”

Vivian blinked, visibly scrambling to speak. “No, no. This wasn’t an attack. It was just a misunderstanding. Renee—” She turned to me, lips twisting into a poor imitation of concern. “You should really be more mindful of your actions. You know how emotional things have been since what the Confirmation Ceremony. It’s not surprising they got upset. You goading them like that—”

“I didn’t goad anyone,” I bit out, still shaking, still bleeding.

She smiled like I hadn’t said a word. “Next time, maybe just think about what you’ll regret before making a scene. All that talk about you being so smart, and you’re not even smart enough to know that.”

She said it like a friend. Like someone trying to help. I couldn’t even muster up the anger, just staring at her.

“Renee,” he said softly.

“Y-Yeah?”

“You need better friends.” Neil turned fully to face Vivian. “I had heard things about you, LAdy Brightclaw, but they hardly do you justice.”

She flushed happily. “Oh, well--”

“I don’t think there is a single thing that could have portrayed just how terrible of a person you truly are.”

Vivian

I stood there stunned, my mouth dry and my heart pounding with disbelief.

Did Neil just call me a terrible person? In front of everyone?

The words still rang in my ears, cold and sharp, cutting deeper than they had any right to. My face burned. Not just from embarrassment—but from rage. Humiliation. And betrayal.

No.

I must have heard wrong. He’s supposed to like me.

He will like me given enough time.

Vivian blinked. “Excuse me? I must have heard you wrong.”

His expression was cold, unmoving, his lips tilted up in the smallest show of disdain and disgust.

“You see a woman who is meant to be your friend beaten, bloody, likely humiliated, and your first instinct is to scold her and pretend that she’s provoked them into attacking?”

“Well, she—” I stammered. “Neil, I—”

“Don’t,” he said. Just that. A single syllable. Final. “There is nothing you can say to cover up that amount of ugliness.”

You could’ve heard a pin drop.

I couldn’t breathe. Everyone seemed to be looking at me. I could feel their eyes on me, burning. We’d talked. We were going to talk more. I was the daughter of the alpha of Brightclaw. He couldn’t talk to me like that. He wouldn’t talk to me like that if Renee was involved.

I glared at Renee as Neil crouched beside her, brushing her hair from her face like she was something precious. I wanted to rip his hands off her. She was basically a rogue! A parasite who couldn’t even shift yet and had no ties, too dumb to know her place. She was just a fat, ugly, little nobody I’d taken pity on and yet he talked to her like she was someone important.

“Can you stand?” He whispered gently.

Renee nodded, shakily, and hissed as he helped her to her to get off the ground.

“My books...”

“I’ll get them. Just sit here, okay?” He turned to someone. “How far away is campus police and EMS?”

“About twenty minutes,” someone answered.

I stood there, stunned like the rest of them, watching him gather up her things, scattered books, her bag, and her broken phone, speaking to her in a tone that was too soft, too gentle, to be wasted on her.

He should be talking to me like that.

My stomach twisted.

This was her fault.

She was ruining everything. She had twisted everything. I know it. If she had just fucking married Tyler instead of pretending that she was better than she was, she would have never had the chance to turn Neil against me. She was the one who started the damn fight in the first place when she decided she was better than she was. She provoked Brightclaw. She brought all of this on herself by getting in my way.

And if Tyler had been better at his job years ago, she would never even have a chance to have a relationship with Neil at all. I clenched my fists, feeling heat crawl up my spine. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. I was supposed to be the one he looked at like that.

I would be, one way or another. I’d change his mind. I’d make him change his mind. Neil came back to Renee with her things and crouched down, taking a look at her hand, surveying her injuries and offering his handkerchief.

“Get your hands off her.”

Tyler’s growl cut through the tension like a blade.

I turned just as he stormed into the circle, fury radiating off him like heat. His eyes glowed with the promise of violence, fixed solely on Neil.

Neil didn’t flinch. He straightened slowly, stepping between Tyler and Renee protectively. He seemed so much bigger, stronger, than I’d ever realized, looming over Tyler and staring him down as if he dared Tyler to take even half a step closer.

“Get out of my way,” Tyler snarled. “She’s my fiance.”

“Was,” Neil said coolly. “And you’ll never lay a hand on her again. You or your sister or her cronies. Mark me.”

The crowd was holding its breath now. Some of the Brightclaw wolves who had come with Tyler edged closer, bristling with the threat of a fight. My heart leapt into my throat.

And then—like a ripple across a still pond—a new group stepped forward from between the crowd.

There were about a dozen of them, dressed impeccably in black and gold. Quiet, confident, dangerous.

At their head was a woman in a midnight suit, her hair twisted into an elaborate updo, her heels clicking sharply against the tile. She moved like she owned the entire damn world.

She took one look at the group surrounding Renee and curled her lip.

“What do you think you’re doing to the princess?”

A flash of fear crossed Renee’s face, and I smiled.

Princess?

I was the only princess here.