Chapter Five

"What did you just say?" Silas’s voice dropped like a guillotine. He stepped from behind Elara, his presence expanding until he seemed to eclipse the very light in the room. The sheer intensity of his gaze was a physical blow, yet Greene, blinded by his own delusion, didn't flinch.

"Who are you having the audacity to talk to like that?" Silas asked, his voice vibrating with a fury that made the nearest guests take a collective step back.

"And who are you to speak to me like that?" Greene challenged, his chest puffed out. He sneered, looking Silas up and down with a dismissive grunt. "Are you the one who smuggled her into this place?" He scoffed, gesturing vaguely at Elara’s gown. "Were you also invited? You don't look like an Alpha to me, more like a Beta feeding on suppressants."

Silas took another step forward, his shadow looming over Greene. "What did you just say?"

"I'm with the President's daughter!" Greene boasted, throwing an arm around Beatrice’s waist. "You don't want to be thrown out of here. I can have you sacked with one word to her father!"

Beatrice, however, had gone deathly pale. Her eyes were fixed on Silas, and her expression shifted from smugness to pure, unadulterated terror. She recognized him. Everyone in the inner circle knew the 'Beast of the Presidential Guard.' She began to shrink back, her voice a frantic whisper. "Greene... lower your voice."

"Lower my voice? I'm not going to lower my voice! Speaking to me like this when you're here with me? I’m going to have him dealt with!"

"Greene, stop raising your voice..." Beatrice pleaded, her hand shaking as she tried to detach herself from his side.

The murmurs from the crowd grew sharper, biting into the silence.

"Who's that guy speaking arrogantly to Alpha Vance?"

"He must have a death wish. Who gave him an invitation? Ordinary Alphas of low rank are suddenly allowed into spaces like this?"

"And he's so brazenly pointing at Silas... that beast no one dares look at twice. He's cooked."

Greene ignored them all, looking at Beatrice with confusion. "Why are you scared? Do they intimidate you? Look at me, I'm this woman's ex-husband. You know who she is already. She’s nothing!"

"You're Alpha Vance's ex-husband?"

The voice that cut through the air was like cold steel sliding over silk. The entire room pivoted. The crowd parted like the Red Sea as a man walked through, his every step echoing with the weight of absolute authority.

It was Calvin.

Elara’s breath hitched as she looked at him. Twelve years had transformed the boy who helped her scale the wall into a titan. He was massive, his physique honed by a decade of military command, his shoulders broad enough to carry the weight of the nation. His hair was dark and swept back, framing a face that was strikingly handsome but carved from granite. His eyes, a piercing, predatory grey, locked onto hers for a fraction of a second, a soft, knowing smile ghosting his lips, before they turned back into ice as he looked at Greene.

"Calvin is here," someone whispered. "That mentally deranged man is as good as dead."

"You said you were Alpha Vance's ex-husband?" Calvin repeated, stopping mere inches from Greene. Silas stepped aside, yielding the floor to the man who had been groomed to be Elara's mate.

Greene’s smile died a little. He looked at Elara, then at Calvin, then back at Elara. A flicker of doubt finally crossed his face, but his arrogance was a hard habit to break. "I don't know about an 'Alpha Vance,' but I know I'm this woman's ex-husband," he replied, pointing a finger at Elara.

Calvin’s jaw tightened. "Stop embarrassing her by saying you're Alpha Vance's ex-husband. You could be jailed for such a claim."

"Jailed for what? Beatrice, can you hear what they're saying?" Greene turned to the girl, but Beatrice was already three steps away, her face a mask of sweating panic.

"You're supposed to keep quiet at this point, Greene," Elara said, her voice cutting through his panic like a scalpel. She turned her cold gaze to the girl. "Beatrice... you said you're the President's daughter?"

Beatrice looked like she wanted to melt into the floorboards. She couldn't even find her voice.

"Well, you know she is!" Greene snapped, letting go of Beatrice's hand to gesture toward the ballroom at large. "Go find your father, Beatrice. I would love to discuss our marriage proceedings with him right now."

"Marriage proceedings?" Elara asked while Greene nodded proudly, adjusted his lapels as if he already wore the crown.

"Yeah, marriage proceedings. To marry an Alpha, things like this always happen. You know, you don't just marry them off like Omegas who have no real marriage, they just stick with their Alphas that they're mated... why am I explaining all these to you like you actually understand."

Elara suddenly began to spread her pheromones as the anger in her began to set in. It wasn't just a scent; it was a tidal wave of pure, unadulterated power. A dizzying feeling enveloped everyone in a thirty-foot radius. The air grew heavy, thick with the metallic tang of a Dominant Alpha's rage. The only people not affected were the other apex predators, Calvin, her father, and a few other Dominant Alphas. Every other person in the room began to take wavering steps, clutching their heads as dizziness washed over them. His father flickered a gaze from where he stood to where she was, wondering what must've made her spread out her strong pheromones so angrily. 

"Who is this Alpha with such strong pheromones?" Greene asked, his voice cracking as he tried plucking his nose, his knees beginning to tremble under a weight he didn't comprehend.

Calvin turned to look at Elara. Of course, he had missed her strong pheromones for so long. The feel of it brought back memories of their childhood, the way they used to spar until the air itself felt like it would combust. He connected to her mind effortlessly, his voice echoing in her head via their old mind link.

“Seriously? This man is your ex-husband? He asked, his mental tone dripping with condescending disbelief. “You didn't want me as your mate so you could be with such a blabbermouth like this? What did he give to you to make you waste years with him?”

“Calvin, just shut up.”

“I will shut up, but please stop spreading your pheromones everywhere. You’re contaminating the party. There are some Omegas in this building, Elara. You won't know how to take care of them all if you break them into their heat cycles.”

The warning snapped her back. She remembered someone, she turned around immediately to where Silas stood. He was shaking violently, his knuckles white as he gripped the back of a chair. He was trying so hard to maintain his composure, but the sweat soaking through his suit gave him away. Her pheromones were hitting him like a physical blow; even the strongest suppressants couldn't shield an Omega from a Dominant Alpha’s direct, unbridled fury.

"Who is this Alpha with these pheromones? He should stop spreading it!" Greene yelled, his voice rising in a panicked pitch as the room began to spin for him.

Elara stepped closer toward him, her shadow looming large. "It's me. I'm the woman with those pheromones you're talking about."

"You?" He asked, a scoff forming on his lips, but the scoff died as she released them further. "You're an alpha?" 

The surge was too much. To everyone's absolute shock, Silas slumped to the floor immediately. The air was suddenly flooded with a new scent, something sweet, raw, and terrifyingly vulnerable. His own Omega pheromones were slipping out of him in a desperate, uncontrollable rush, stripped bare by Elara's presence. It was as if he had turned twelve again, caught in the terrifying onset of a gender he had spent a decade hiding.

Elara blinked, swallowing hard as the sweet scent hit her senses.