LOGINMia's pov The crowd may be laughing, but Axelair wasn't. In fact, the amusement that had been playing in his eyes was no longer there. Instead, ruthlessness replaced them. "Get up, Mia," he commanded. His voice wasn't soft anymore. It was an order that vibrated straight through my spine. I gritted my teeth and pushed my palms into the ground. My elbow throbbed from where I had struck his ribs, and my shoulders were already aching from hitting the floor twice. I scrambled up onto my feet, brushing the dust off my leggings with shaking hands. "I said, I'm ready to stop," I said, trying to keep my voice steady. My chest was heaving, my throat raw from swallowing dust. Axelair didn't look like he was ready to stop. He stepped forward and swung his right fist straight toward my face. Oh fuck! I didn't even have time to scream. I threw my arms up to block my head, but the force of his fist hit my forearms so hard that my own knuckles slammed back into my forehead. A sickening cr
Mia's povAxelair started walking around me like a wolf sizing up its prey… and every step he took made my skin prickle. His eyes swept over me, reading every line of my body like he could see right through my clothes.No, don't look at me like that…My heart thumped hard against my ribs."Are you ready?" he grunted.Was I ready? Not even close. My legs felt weak, but I swallowed the lump in my throat and forced my feet to stay in place. Fucking hell. I was terrified, but I wasn't about to let him see it."Don't faint, Mia!" Cass yelled from the side of the circle."Shut up, Cass," I muttered, lifting my chin to glare at him.The crowd stepped closer, squeezing the circle tight around us. My hands were already slick with sweat, and Axelair hadn't even touched me yet.He tilted his head, watching me. "You're quiet. Nervous?"I pushed my shoulders back. "I'm just saving my energy."Cass snorted loudly from the sidelines, and I squeezed my eyes shut for a second, silently cursing her. B
Mia’s POV“Vote for her!” Cass’s dramatic announcement had frozen me on the spot, my ears ringing from the way she’d bellowed my name like I was some holy relic.I wanted to sink into the ground and disappear, but of course that wasn’t how fate worked for me because one thing led to another.Samantha’s face had twitched, hardly holding her smile, while the crowd mumbled in confusion now that their attention was split. Aaand… Cass was still shouting.Seriously! I was still internally dying, thinking of how to escape this situation when… Axelair happened. I could have been hallucinating. But I knew this was Axelair's pack. He could walk in at any time. You see, the man didn’t walk; he prowled into the scene like he had been waiting for this exact kind of problem to unfold.His dark eyes went from Samantha to me, and the crowd went silent at once. “What’s this?” His voice was low, and dangerous, but there was that glint of amusement I hated. “Comparisons? Trials before the trial?” H
Alex's POVI laughed then, low and humorless, because the idea of bedding a woman I hated as a strategy made me want to gouge my eyes out. You see, I was looking for Meliora for reasons known to me.Not to use and dumb later. “You think I’d sell Meliora like a trinket, Daphne? Use her and toss her away?” The word ‘use’ tasted like bile. “I’d sooner burn this whole rotten line to the ground.”Her smile thinned. “You… how noble. How very… naive.” She tilted her head as if studying me the way a bored child studies ants on the stone. “You’re gotten worse than I thought, Alexander Desori. You pretend to be some sweet savior, but you’d bend to whoever promised you something greater than the Desori Blood and Claw pack. You want the South Ridge power, too. Don’t pretend you’re above it.”I stepped closer until the iron chainbit of her ankle scraped against my boot. Up close, the smell of her… old sweat and something metallic, hit me. I could see the fine tremor in the corner of her eye w
Alex's POV “But then I learned what my parents never told me. Tristan wasn’t even their blood. That bastard was adopted when he was five, dragged into our family because two Alphas couldn’t produce an Alpha heir. Such a pathetic excuse for a family. And as if fate wanted to mock me, after they took him in, they conceived me.”She gave a bitter, humorless laugh. “Instead of placing me on the throne where I belonged, they chose him. Tristan, the outsider. The adopted wolf. Do you know what that does to a child’s pride?”I didn’t answer. I just watched her, face unreadable. She really did know how to cuss… another side of Daphne I hadn’t seen before.She went on, her voice smooth even as her words cut deep. “I could have swallowed that. Maybe. But fate wasn’t done being cruel. Tristan’s mate turned out to be Meliora. My Meliora. My friend. The anger… the betrayal… it burned everything clean. How could my friend betray me like that? They’d been seeing each other in secret, longing for ea
Alex's POV The guard tightened the shackles on her ankles and the hot metal bit into skin. She winced. “Every time you hesitate,” I said, “I take something away. Maybe a finger. Maybe an ear. Or maybe something worse, you don’t get to pick.” Warren shifted behind me but didn’t speak. He knew better. “Why are you doing this?” Daphne muttered finally. “Because your brother owes me,” I snapped. “And because you’re the only thing left that hurts him. Don’t pretend you don’t know why you’re here.” She stared at the table. “Look at me when I’m talking.” My voice was sharp now. She lifted her gaze slowly. “Good,” I said. “Now, let’s make this simple. Tell me where he’s hiding.” “I can’t.” “You mean you won’t.” Silence. I nodded to the guard. This time, they yanked her head back by the hair… enough to make her cry out. “That was nothing,” I said flatly. “You’ll wish I stopped at pain if you keep testing me.” Her breathing grew uneven. I leaned back, crossing m
Axelair's POV Her lips pressed against mine hard enough to sting, but I didn’t pull away at once… maybe it was the heat of the moment or the exhaustion burning through my body, but I let Samantha chew on my lower lips there for a second before I finally pushed her back by the shoulders.I wiped my
Axelair's POV “Mia… I’m sorry.” I whispered to the wind, hoping she'd hear me. When Uncle Ashish asked for my permission to torture her, I couldn’t refuse. If I did, he would only use it as another excuse to say I wasn’t in my right mind, or that I’d changed. Since when did we start accommodatin
Alexander's POV "Donotrom, did you see that?” I frantically asked my wolf. He grunted.My smile widened at the glare Mia was shooting me now. It was laced with a subtle hatred. Even if she thought I was bluffing, her eyes narrowed into slits, daring me to admit how much I actually knew.Ashish ca
Alexander's POVAshish stopped immediately, throwing me an intrigued look. If he was offended by my tone or words, he didn't say much about it. Goddess above… help me.I took a deep breath, plastering an appeasing smile on my face.“Uncle Ashish, that's enough for now.”Ashish’s eyes told me I was







