C7

"You need to take this tray up to the Alpha King's Chambers before he leaves for the Bennett Alpha Dominion Hall," Beta Aide Eleanor said, handing me the silver server.

I wiped my sweaty palms on my thick thighs, my curvy, plus-size body trembling beneath my simple tunic as my human heart hammered against my ribs.

"Is he still furious about the missing translator for the Silverclaw Council Elders?" I asked softly.

"He is short-tempered with everyone since the Moonfall war, Freya," Eleanor sighed, her eyes filled with gentle sympathy for a frail human trapped in a world of monsters. "Just give him his bitter brew, no sugar, no milk."

I took a deep breath and carried the heavy mug up the winding stone stairs of the Bennett Silverclaw Citadel.

My human mother, Martha Holloway, was dying of silver-poisoning back at the Holloway Manor, and my ruthless father, Graham Holloway, had forced me into this arranged mate-bond contract with the ruthless Alpha King, Lucien Bennett.

I needed Lucien's help to save my mother and reclaim our stolen ancestral lands, but to him, I was just a fat, useless human bride traded away by a corrupt family.

Standing outside the heavy oak doors of the Alpha King's Chambers, I heard Lucien's furious voice booming from inside, echoing with raw Alpha power that made my human blood turn cold.

"Tell the Beta Council Secretary that if he cannot find a scholar who reads the ancient northern werewolf runes by noon, I will rip his throat out myself!" Lucien roared, slamming his fists onto his desk.

I flinched, my heart racing, but I knocked twice on the heavy wooden frame.

"Get in here!" he snapped, his deep voice dripping with murderous tension.

I pushed the door open, my hands shaking as I held the steaming cup of dark roast. "I brought your coffee, Alpha."

Lucien turned toward me, his towering, muscular frame radiating terrifying dominance, his dark eyes flashing with amber wolf-fire as his gaze dragged slowly over my oversized frame.

"What game are you playing now, Freya?" Lucien sneered, stepping closer, his heavy scent of cedar and ozone filling my lungs. "You avoided me all morning, and now you come creeping into my private chambers like a desperate little pet?"

"I only wanted to bring you breakfast," I lied, my lower lip trembling as I set the mug on his desk next to a massive stack of ancient leather-bound pack treaties.

"Don't play innocent with me," Lucien growled, his large, calloused hand darting out to snatch my chin, his long fingers squeezing tightly until a sharp pain shot through my jaw. "Did Graham send his fat, pathetic human daughter here to beg for the Silverclaw territory rights?"

"No—I am not here for him!" I gasped, the heat of his skin scorching mine, sending an unwanted, shameful wave of warmth straight down between my thighs.

Even though he hated me, my body betrayed me, my wet core throbbing from the sheer proximity of his overwhelming Alpha aura.

"Get out of my sight before I lose my temper!" he snarled, shoving me away with brutal force.

I stumbled backward, my arm catching the edge of the desk, knocking the hot coffee straight over the ancient council documents.

The thick black liquid instantly soaked into the fragile pages written in the forgotten rune language of the Northern Wolf Packs.

"Look at what you've done!" Lucien roared, his chest heaving as his eyes turned fully gold, his wolf raging just beneath his skin. "Get out!"

"I'm sorry! I'll fix it—" I pleaded, trying to wipe the liquid with my sleeve.

"I said get out!" he bellowed, his voice vibrating through the entire Citadel.

I grabbed the empty mug and ran out of the room, my face burning with tears of humiliation, my chest aching with a deep, hollow pain.

I spent the rest of the evening alone in my cold room, unable to sleep as the burden of my mother's illness and my father's threats weighed heavily on my mind.

At three in the morning, driven by desperate remorse, I crept back into the Alpha King's Chambers while Lucien was away inspecting the Silverclaw Elite Guardians at the perimeter.

The ruined documents were still sitting on the grand mahogany desk.

I sat down in his large leather chair, pulled out fresh parchment, and pulled a quill from the inkwell.

My father had forced me to study dead shifter dialects as a child to make me useful to his business trades, and I recognized every single character on those stained pages.

Hour after hour, my fingers cramped and my eyes burned as I translated page after page of the complex pack territory treaties into plain language, setting them in neat stacks on his desk.

By the time the early morning sun began to peek over the horizon, my back was aching, my pregnant body exhausted from carrying a secret child I hadn't even dared to tell him about yet.

I stretched my sore wrist, placed the original soaked documents under my newly translated pages, and silently slipped back to my room before anyone could catch me.

Later that morning, Lucien stood in the dining hall, staring at the empty seat at the table with a dark scowl.

"Where is she?" Lucien asked coldly, turning to Beta Aide Eleanor. "Why isn't my human wife down here to serve my breakfast?"

Eleanor bowed her head respectfully. "Lady Freya is still asleep in her quarters, My Lord. She was up almost all night working in your study after you left."

Lucien's dark brows drew together, his lip curling into a bitter smirk. "Working? She probably spent the night snooping through my private pack ledgers to steal information for her father."

"You misjudge her, Alpha," Eleanor said quietly, her voice full of quiet warning. "The girl was trying to help you. She asked me yesterday about your favorite meals, and she cooked every dish on your dinner plate with her own hands."

Lucien paused, his hand gripping his dining knife a little tighter as a strange, unwelcome twitch stirred in his chest.

"Do not let her sweet act fool you, Eleanor," Lucien muttered, turning on his heel as he headed toward his private study. "She is a Holloway, and humans will do anything for power."

Pushing open the heavy doors to his study, Lucien marched toward his desk, intending to throw away the ruined papers from the night before.

Instead, his eyes landed on a neat stack of crisp white parchment sitting directly over the stained ancient treaties.

He picked up the top page, his heart violently slamming against his ribs as his eyes scanned the flawless handwriting, reading the perfect translation of the northern rune treaties that his entire Beta Council had failed to decipher for months.

Attached to the bottom page was a small, handwritten note from Freya.

I am sorry for spilling the coffee. You mentioned you needed a translator for the council project, so I finished it for you before morning. - Freya

Lucien stared at the paper, his breath catching in his throat as his powerful wolf suddenly growled deep within his chest, recognizing something profound that he had been too blind to see.

Before he could process the realization, Tristan Mercer, his trusted Beta Aide, burst through the door, his face pale and frantic.

"Alpha King! Emergency at the Silvermoon Healing Sanctuary!" Tristan panted, out of breath. "Rowan Ashcroft from the Nightfang Pack just arrived with legal pack authority papers signed by Graham Holloway!"

Lucien's eyes narrowed into slits of lethal anger. "What papers?"

"They are claiming Lady Freya's human mother as a captive debt bond," Tristan revealed, his voice dropping to a harsh whisper. "And Rowan Ashcroft just sent a pack warrior to drag Lady Freya out of her bed right now!"

Lucien dropped the translated document, his jaw clenching as a wave of untamed, possessive rage erupted through his veins.