Chapter 5

Annalise's POV

Her footsteps snapped against the floor as she swept toward us, her red painted lips stretched in a false smile. She bowed low before Alaric, though her eyes sparkled with venom when they flicked to me.

"My prince," she said sweetly, "before you depart, allow me to send with you one of our serving girls. A companion for my dear daughter."

Alaric's brow arched, suspicion sharp in his gaze. "A serving girl? Why?"

The silence that followed tightened the air like a noose. Judy didn't falter. Her smile only widened, her voice pitched to carry to every ear present.

"Because my daughter is mute," she said smoothly. "She cannot speak for herself. Surely, she'll need someone to interpret her silence."

The words sliced through me, hot and cold all at once. My fists curled against the folds of my gown, nails digging into my palms forming crescent shapes . Humiliation prickled up my spine, but worse than that was the raw truth… my secret laid bare for all of them to sneer at.

The Lycan nobles that heard her gasped softly, they began whispering behind fans and hands. My cheeks burned, but I did not bow. I did not let them see me break.

Alaric's reaction was instant. His jaw locked, his amber eyes igniting with fury. He stepped toward Judy, towering, predatory. The silence stretched taut.

"Mute?" he repeated, his voice low, and dangerously lethal. "You insult my bride at my own wedding?"

Judy faltered, her smile flickering at the sound of his raging voice. "I.. I only meant what… "

"You meant WHAT?," Alaric snarled, "to tell everyone including me of her flaws. To parade them like trinkets before us. To humiliate me. Do you think I am subject to your venom?"

The room froze. Even Alpha King Ethan's expression tightened, but he said nothing.

Then, out of the corner of my eye.. I caught it. A subtle gesture from Queen Seraphina. Barely a tilt of her head, a flick of her jeweled fingers. A signal… To him.

She wanted him to control it. To let the insult slide, or bury it quietly. But it was obvious Prince Alaric was not a man to be muzzled.

His lips curled in a humorless smirk as he leaned closer to Judy. His voice dropped to a dangerous whisper that still carried across the hall.

"Your gift is refused. And your tongue… should remember its place. Else…."

Color immediately drained from Judy's face. She quickly dropped into a trembling bow, too cowed to speak further.

For the first time that day, a spark of warmth flared inside me.

Pathetic, perhaps, that it came from watching him shred her with words sharper than knives. But it was something. A piece of satisfaction carved from the ruins.

And though sadness pulled heavy inside my chest, though shame still clawed at my throat, I couldn't stop the faint curl of a smirk from tugging my lips.

Alaric saw it. His eyes flicked to mine, brief and unreadable, before turning away.

Queen Seraphina excused herself soon after, gliding from the hall like a predator retreating into shadows as she walked towards her carriage ready to leave.

Her approval of her son's handling of the insult was evident in the faintest lift of her chin.

That left us before the wolves. Ethan, cold and smug. Prince Nathan, eyes softer, searching mine with something that felt like pity. And Troy, my father, silent and broken, his shoulders hunched under the weight of his cowardice.

Alaric's voice sliced through the air. "Any more farewell gifts?"

Ethan's smirk deepened. Troy bowed his head. Only Nathan stepped forward, his jaw tight, his fists clenched at his side.

He met Alaric's gaze without flinching. "Take care of her."

The words were not request but command.

Alaric's lip curled. Disdain rippled across his face, but he said nothing. His hand tightened around mine instead, punishing, possessive.

"And if I don't?" Alaric coldly shot back and Nathan smirked.

"We'll see"

I lowered my eyes, hiding the storm within them.

Alaric and I finally turned, towards the great doors, the sea of nobles parting before us. The weight of their stares pressed into my back, into my skin, into my bones.

With every step, the world I had known crumbled further away. My family. My kingdom. Even the last shred of my voice.

And yet, when the doors slammed shut behind us, sealing us from Silver Claw forever, I felt it. The truth sinking deep, unshakable, terrifying.

I no longer belonged to them.

I belonged to him now.

Alarics POV

The taste of wolf stench clung to the back of my throat, bitter and foul. My mother's soldiers lined the path to our carriage, like armored shadows glinting beneath the moon.

The whispers of wolves and Lycans alike trailed after us like ghosts. They weren't cheering.. They weren't celebrating...

They were waiting.. waiting for the first sign of fracture in the fragile treaty that had been signed in blood. This was politics after all.

The girl at my side moved like someone who had been walking through cages her entire life, who had learned long ago not to falter even when the bars dug into her skin and I felt oddly drawn to that.

The carriage door quickly shut with a hollow thud, sealing us inside.

She sat across from me, with her hands folded neatly in her lap. Those blue eyes never stopped staring. Not timidly, not defiantly, but as though she were searching for something inside me.

My bride… though she wasn't supposed to be.

The instant she stepped into that hall, I knew. The scent wasn't Dahlia's. Wolves always carried a sharp, earthy trace, but this one smelled of rain after fire, too fragile, too unworldly to belong to a wolf.. Human.

The word still burned on my tongue like poison. Humans were meant to serve us not be joined with us in holy matrimony…

Now, in the dim light of the carriage, she raised her head and moved her hands delicately in the air. The motions were soft, flowing… a language of silence.

"Thank you". She signed, but I ignored her.

I leaned back against the seat, shutting my own eyes, forcing her image into the darkness behind my eye lids.

But the silence broke. Her hands moved again.. small, deliberate motions in the air.