A Mistress’s Fury

Veronica’s POV

The corridor seemed to shrink around me as I stormed toward my chambers, my heels striking the stone floor like thunderclaps. Rage burned in my chest so hot it made my breath catch. I could hardly believe what I had just witnessed Alpha Dylan, my Dylan, walking a stray into the packhouse as though she belonged.

And worse, as though she belonged to him.

My hands trembled as I shoved open the door to my room. The polished wood groaned under the force, and the echo rattled through the high-ceilinged space. A mirror stood across from me, gilded and tall, and when my reflection caught my eye, I almost didn’t recognize myself. My face was flushed, eyes too bright, lips curled in a snarl.

“Her,” I hissed. The word tasted bitter, poisoned. “Of all the women in this world, he chooses her?”

I tore the pins from my hair and let the waves tumble free, pacing like a caged beast. My room was as grand as a queen’s a wide bed draped in silk, tall windows veiled with curtains of crimson velvet, gold-framed paintings along the walls. For years, this chamber had been my throne, proof of my place at Dylan’s side. The Luna’s room was never mine, no, but this this had been his gift to me. His acknowledgment.

And now?

Now he had given the Luna’s chamber…the sacred suite reserved only for his true mate to a girl who had dirt still clinging to her hands. A servant. A nobody.

I gripped the back of a chair until my nails left crescents in the wood. My heart pounded, fury mixing with disbelief. Dylan had always been mine. Everyone knew it. The pack had accepted it. I had been more than a mistress I had been his shadow, his confidante, the one he turned to when no one else dared speak to him.

I had stood at his side through his rise, through his wars, through the bloodshed that crowned him Alpha. And this was my reward? To be replaced by a girl with frightened eyes and a trembling voice?

“No,” I whispered, shaking my head, my hair whipping around my shoulders. “This isn’t over. It will never be over.”

I stalked to the window and yanked the curtain aside, staring out at the sprawling courtyard below. Servants moved busily across the cobblestones, guards patrolled with sharp eyes, and in the distance the training field rang with the clash of steel. This was my world. My pack. My power.

And she thought she could just walk into it?

I laughed, sharp and bitter. “Let her enjoy her moment. Let her think she’s won.”

Because soon, very soon, she would learn that being claimed by the Alpha didn’t make her strong. It made her vulnerable.

I turned from the window and began pacing again, my thoughts dark and fast. Dylan’s mother…yes. His sisters. They would see her for what she truly was. They were proud women, raised in power, unyielding and sharp as blades. They had always watched me with suspicion, but at least I matched their world. I had elegance, beauty, the poise of a Luna even if I didn’t carry the title.

But that girl? Elsa? They would tear her apart with a single glance. They would see the servant’s hands, the timid posture, the way she flinched even when she tried to stand tall. And they would know know that she wasn’t worthy of their son, their brother, their Alpha.

And when they rejected her, when they whispered poison into Dylan’s ear, I would be there. Waiting.

My lips curved into a smile, though my chest still burned with rage. “Yes,” I murmured. “Let his family destroy her for me.”

Still, a sliver of doubt slid like ice through my fury. Dylan had looked at her in a way I couldn’t quite name at breakfast. Not tenderness no, he was not a man of tenderness. But there had been something there, something I had never seen directed at me. Possessiveness.

It made bile rise in my throat.

I refused to believe he would give his heart to her. He didn’t have a heart to give. Dylan was strength, power, command. He did not bend for anyone. That was why I had loved him, why I had served him, why I had accepted the role of mistress without shame. Because I knew the truth: he was above love, above softness, above weakness.

And yet…

I remembered the way Elsa had lifted her chin in the corridor, the defiance flickering in her eyes when she whispered, “We will see.”

My hands curled into fists. That spark it unsettled me. She should have cowered. She should have broken beneath my words. But instead, she dared to stand.

“Stupid girl,” I spat. “She doesn’t know what it costs to defy me.”

I sank into my chair, pressing my fingers to my temples as anger and something else churned inside me. Was it possible that Dylan had chosen her because of that very spark? That sliver of fire, so easy to crush, yet still burning?

No. I wouldn’t let myself think it.

He would see soon enough that she was nothing. And when he did, he would return to me. He always did.

The door creaked, and one of my maids slipped in, her head bowed low. “Mistress,” she whispered nervously.

“What is it?” I snapped.

Her hands twisted in her apron. “Word is spreading. The Alpha’s mother has been told of the girl. She has summoned her already.”

A rush of triumph surged through me, so sudden I almost laughed. “Good,” I said, rising to my feet. “Very good.”

The maid hesitated. “Do you think… she will accept her?”

I turned slowly, fixing the girl with a glare sharp enough to cut. “Accept her?” I repeated. “No. The Luna mother is not a fool. She will see what I see. And when she does, the Alpha’s little mate will regret ever stepping foot in this house.”

The maid bowed and scurried out, leaving me alone once more.

I walked to the mirror, smoothing my gown, adjusting my hair until every strand lay perfect. My reflection stared back at me, flawless and cold. Yes, I thought. This was power. This was beauty. This was what a Luna should look like.

Elsa had nothing to match it. Nothing.

Still, deep in my chest, that ember of fear refused to die. It whispered that perhaps Dylan saw something in her I could not erase. Something raw. Something dangerous.

But I smothered the thought with fresh rage.

She would not last. She could not last.

And I Veronica, mistress of the Alpha, queen without a crown would make certain of it.