STOPPED

MAYA

At the moment, I decided to use what I have and stop whatever it is she has on the Alpha.

I was tired of watching him cower before her. I was tired of standing by while she pulled his strings like a helpless wooden puppet. If Maria was using a dark secret to control my Ewdard, then I was going to use my ancient royal power to break her right here in this room.

My eyes swept across the vanity table, locking onto a heavy crystal glass cup resting near the edge.

I focused every drop of my rage, my ancestral spirit, and my reincarnated will directly onto that glass. Fall, I ordered in my mind, sending a sharp wave of spiritual energy across the air. Fall on her!

I stared at the glass cup and ordered it to fall on Maria.

The heavy crystal shivered on the polished wood. With a sharp crack, it launched itself off the vanity table, flying straight through the steam toward Maria's head!

It fell, but she had already made a move out of the spot she was.

Just a split second before the glass reached her face, Maria casually tilted her head and took a step to the left. The crystal cup shattered violently against the marble floor right behind her feet, spraying sharp glass shards and warm water everywhere across the floorboards.

She looked at me and smiled.

It wasn't a smile of shock, and it wasn't a smile of fear. It was a slow, dark, mocking grin that made every hair on my arms stand up on end.

For a few seconds, I wondered what that smile was all about. Could it be that she now knows I was the cause of the glass falling, or is it that she had some powers against me now? Had she found out about the ancestral book under my bed? Or had she struck a deal with some dark forest witch to protect herself against my reincarnated soul?

Edward gasped, stepping back from the shattered glass, his eyes wide with sudden tension. "What was that?!"

He turned toward the open hallway door and shouted for help. Edward called a maid to clear the glass, his voice rough and commanding.

"Call one of the cleaning girls up here at once to sweep this room!" he ordered a guard passing by in the corridor.

But Maria stepped forward, putting her hand lightly on Edward's arm, her dark eyes never leaving my face.

"There is no need to trouble the housemaids, my Lord," Maria said, her voice dripping with cruel satisfaction. "Maria said I am a maid in the house and should clean it."

My blood boiled inside my veins. I stood tall, my hands clenching into tight fists at my sides. "I am not sweeping your floor, Maria."

"She is my wife!" Edward warned, his voice rising in anger as he looked down at Maria, his Alpha authority flaring up for a fleeting second. "She carries my mark, Maria! Stop treating her like a servant in front of me!"

Again, Maria whispered something to him.

She leaned in close, putting her lips right against the side of his ear. I couldn't hear the exact words she spoke, but I caught the low, poisonous hiss of her breath. Whatever she said hit Edward like a heavy blow to the chest.

The fire in his amber eyes died instantly. His shoulders slouched, the color drained from his face, and he looked down at the floor as if he had just been stripped of his sword on a battlefield.

He turned his head slowly to look at me, his eyes filled with a deep, silent apology that broke my heart into a thousand pieces.

"Clear the glass, Maya," Edward whispered, his voice completely hollow, devoid of any Alpha strength. "Please... just clear the mess from the broken cup."

He couldn't even look me in the eye as he spoke those words.

Without waiting for my answer, Edward turned on his heel and walked out of the washroom, his heavy boots echoing down the hallway. Edward left to join the meeting with the elders to discuss about the last night attack and the way to secure the pack. He was going to sit in the council hall, acting like the supreme leader of our pack, while leaving his marked wife at the mercy of a monster first wife inside his own home.

I was left with Maria in the room.

The heavy oak door settled into silence behind Edward's departure. The steam in the room was slowly fading, leaving behind an icy, suffocating chill. Maria stood near the vanity, her arms crossed over her silk robe, watching me with that same wicked grin.

I didn't bend down to pick up the broken glass. Instead, I took a step toward her, my gaze cold, sharp, and fearless.

"Who was in the Alpha's room last night?" I asked Maria.

Maria let out a low, musical laugh, leaning her hip back against the edge of the wooden table. "Why do you care, maid? You were locked out in the cold room where you belong."

"Answer me!" I demanded, my voice echoing off the tiled walls. "Who was in his bed while he was miles away fighting?"

She smiled and replied, "It was the breeder."

My chest heaved up and down as my breath came in short, jagged gasps. "With who?" I asked, my voice trembling with disgust and rage. "Who was she with in the Alpha's private room?"

Maria's smile faded into a cold, arrogant scowl. She straightened her posture, looking down her nose at me with absolute contempt.

"I am the Luna of the Nightshade Pack," Maria warned me, her voice turning sharp as a razor. "I am a maid, and I do not answer to a maid."

"I am not a maid!" I snapped, taking another aggressive step toward her until we were standing face-to-face. "I am a Luna and a wife to the Alpha, just like you! I carry his mark on my neck!"

CRACK!

Her hand flew across the air before I could react.

She slapped me across the face with such force that my head snapped to the side, the sharp sting of her ring slicing across my cheekbone. Pain exploded in my jaw, and the copper taste of blood filled my mouth once more.

"Learn your place, you wretched girl!" Maria hissed into my face, her breath hot and sour against my skin. "You are nothing in this palace! You are a failed breeder, a servant, and an evil one! Touch me or question me again, and I will have the guards throw you into the dungeon!"

She brushed past my shoulder, her silk robe sweeping against my bruised arm as she marched out of the room, leaving me alone with the shattered glass.

I stood there in the quiet room, my hand pressed against my burning cheek. I didn't cry. The time for tears had passed long ago. A dark, terrifying clarity settled deep inside my spirit.

Later that afternoon, the sun began its slow descent behind the jagged mountains, casting long, bloody red shadows across the stone corridors.

I walked quietly down the second-floor hallway toward the guest wing. My steps were silent, my heart steady as a beating drum. I reached the half-open door of the chamber where Clara had been staying.

I looked through the narrow crack in the heavy wood.

Later that afternoon, I saw Clara sucking her pussy, she just like I did.

They were on the velvet lounge chair by the window. Maria was leaning back with her eyes half-closed, her hands tangled tightly in Clara's soft brown hair, while the young girl knelt between her legs, performing that same sickening act of forced submission. Clara's face was flushed, her shoulders shaking, completely trapped under Maria's dark control.

I have never hated Maria the way I did today, and I must destroy her.

It wasn't just anger anymore. It was a deep, righteous fury that burned hotter than any fire in hell. Maria was a disease rotting this palace from the inside out. She was using helpless young girls, abusing her power, blackmailing my mate, and corrupting everything sacred in this pack while pretending to be a saint before the Pack!

I stepped fully into the doorway, letting the heavy door swing open until it crashed against the stone wall.

Both of them gasped, snapping their heads toward me in utter shock. Clara scrambled backward on the chair, her face turning bright red with shame, while Maria quickly pulled her silk robe over her body, her eyes flashing with pure rage.

"How dare you enter without knocking, you insolent bitch!" Maria screamed, pushing herself up from the chair. "Get out before I—"

I didn't say a single word.

I turned my head slowly and locked my eyes onto the massive portrait hanging on the hallway wall right outside the open door—the ancient painting of Princess Philomena in her golden royal robes.

I poured every drop of my hatred, my suffering, my bruised body, and my reincarnated soul into that canvas. Crush them! I commanded the spirits of my past life. Make them suffer!

Instantly, a freezing, howling wind swept through the closed bedroom, knocking the velvet curtains wildly against the glass windows. The air turned heavy, thick, and suffocating.

I looked at the picture on the wall, and it began to spin their heads!

The ancestral power exploded into the room like a physical shockwave. The golden frame of the portrait trembled, and an invisible, dizzying force slammed directly into Maria and Clara's brains!

The two of them began to scream!

"Ahhhh! My head!" Clara shrieked, clutching her skull with both hands as she collapsed off the chair onto the hard rug. "My brain is bursting! Stop it! Please, make it stop!"

Maria let out a loud, hysterical scream, stumbling sideways against the heavy wooden wardrobe. Her hands flew to her temples, her face twisting into an expression of pure, unadulterated agony as her vision spun wildly out of control.

"No! No! The ghost!" Maria wept, falling onto her knees beside Clara, rolling on the carpet as the dizzying spell tore through her mind. "Get away from me! Turn it off! Turn it off!"

I stood in the doorway, my dress fluttering in the ghostly wind, watching them writhing and weeping on the floor like wounded snakes.

The good thing is that the sucking of pussy stopped.

They were no longer touch each other. They were no longer playing their sick, corrupt games. They were flat on the ground, screaming for mercy, completely paralyzed by the raw, divine authority of Princess Philomena's reborn soul.

A cold, beautiful smile spread across my face as I wiped a drop of blood from my lip.

Maria will never use another young girl for her sexual satisfaction while lying to the pack that she was a breeder for the Alpha!

I took a slow step into the room, looking down at Maria, who was sobbing and clawing at the carpet in utter agony, her Luna pride completely shattered into dust beneath my feet.

"This is only the beginning, Maria," I whispered, my voice sounding like two voices speaking at once—Maya's soft tone mixed with the terrifying, resonant echo of Princess Philomena. "You took my life, you blackmailed my husband, and you abused my people. Now, you will pay for every single sin."

I turned around and walked out into the corridor, letting the door slam shut behind me, leaving their frantic, agonizing screams echoing through the dark, empty halls of the palace. The battle lines were drawn, and for the first time since my return, the enemy was bleeding.