Chapter 20: Aura

A shocked, breathless gasp rippled through the assembly. But not a fuck did I give!

"All you Alphas are nothing but heartless fuckers!" I screamed, spinning in a circle to glare up at the tiered benches, clutching Mael tightly to my chest with one arm. "You have no sympathy for a mother and a child! All you care about is your stupid, fucking dusty traditions! You’re all too lazy and too cowardly to find a different way to survive, so you blame your weakness on me!"

I sucked in a ragged breath, my chest heaving. The sheer audacity of it was intoxicating. The growling, thundering voice didn't belong to the Moon Goddess. It belonged to me.

"You know what?" I yelled, my eyes locking onto Kaelen's stunned, pale face. "I don't give a fuck anymore!"

I threw my free hand high into the air, my middle finger extended proudly, aggressively toward the Frostbane banners. I shoved it up toward Kaelen, toward Varak, towards the entire assembly of cocksuckers.

The silence in the room was absolute horror. No one breathed. No one blinked. A wolfless slave was standing in the Great Assembly Hall, flipping off the most dangerous predators on the continent.

Then, I slowly turned around to face the dais.

Riven had finally turned his head. His golden eyes were wide, fixed on me in something that looked dangerously close to shock.

"And you," I snarled, pointing my middle finger directly at the Lycan King. "You are not exempted from this! Fuck you too, Riven!"

The room exploded.

"Treason!" an Alpha screamed from the upper benches.

"Kill her!" another roared, the sound thick with deep-seated, homicidal rage.

"Someone cut that bitch and her baby alive!" a Southern warlord bellowed, leaping over a bench. "Dice them like vegetables! She dares speak to her gods like that?!"

Five heavy, elite Vanguard guards stationed at the base of the dais instantly drew their massive broadswords, the ring of steel cutting through the chaos. They charged toward me, their eyes flashing yellow.

I didn't cower. I didn't drop to my knees. I stood my ground, wrapping both arms around Mael, pulling him flush against my heart. I didn't give a fuck. I would rather be sliced into a hundred bloody pieces right here on this floor than spend another second in Kaelen’s basement.

"Wait! Let the pup live!" Kaelen screamed from the benches. "Hold your blades! Let the pup live!"

"No, Kaelen!" I screamed back, staring the charging guards dead in the eyes. "Both the pup and I will die here today! And when I am dragged up to meet your precious Queen Goddess, I'll stick my middle finger right in her fucking face too!"

The guards were ten feet away. Their blades raised. I closed my eyes, burying my face in Mael’s soft blanket, waiting for the agonizing bite of the steel.

VWOOM.

A wave of pressure so catastrophic it defied physics suddenly exploded from the center of the room.

It wasn't an Alpha's aura. It was something else entirely. It was a physical shockwave of raw, unadulterated gravity.

I opened my eyes.

The five Vanguard guards were frozen mid-stride. Their massive broadswords were suspended in the air. They couldn't move. Their eyes were bulging out of their skulls, their mouths opening in silent screams.

And then, slowly, their boots lifted off the floor.

They were floating. The heavy, armored Lycans were being hoisted three feet into the air by an invisible, suffocating vice.

A collective gasp of sheer terror echoed from the benches. I spun around. The Alphas were pinned to their seats, their faces drained of blood, unable to move a single muscle under the crushing weight of the atmosphere.

I whipped my head toward the throne.

Riven was gripping the iron armrests of his chair, his knuckles white. His eyes were blown wide, staring at the floating guards. He was fighting the pressure too.

It wasn't him.

Mael’s wailing reached a fever pitch, the sound turning into a strange, layered resonance that vibrated the stones beneath my feet. My skin prickled with a terrifying, electric heat.

Before anyone in the hall could comprehend what was happening, the first bone snapped.

It sounded like a massive oak tree breaking in half.

One of the floating guards let out a blood-curdling, agonizing shriek. His right arm suddenly bent backward at an impossible angle.

Then the other four guards started screaming.

CRACK. SNAP. CRUNCH.

The sickening symphony of breaking bones filled the hall. Arms, legs, ribs, spines—they were all fracturing, folding inward. The invisible force wasn't just holding them; it was compressing them.

"Ahhhhh!" the guards wailed, blood bursting from their lips as their armor began to buckle and warp under the pressure.

I stood in the exact center of it all, completely untouched by the crushing gravity. The air around me felt calm, protected, even as the heavy breeze whipped my dark hair wildly around my face. I held Mael fiercely, his unnatural screams still vibrating against my chest.

They are being reduced, my mind supplied, a detached, horrifying realization taking over.

It took ten mind-bending seconds. Ten seconds of horrific screaming, snapping bone, and bending steel. The guards' bodies were folded, crushed, and compacted into dense, geometric shapes.

And then, the invisible force simply let go.

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

Five objects hit the basalt floor, rolling to a stop just inches from my feet.

The Great Assembly Hall was entombed in absolute, breathless silence.

I stared down at the floor, my chest heaving, my breath coming in ragged, harsh pants.

Sitting in the small puddles of their own blood were five perfectly square, terrifyingly dense boxes. They were barely three inches tall. Cubes of crushed armor, bone, and flesh.

I slowly lifted my head.

Hundreds of the most lethal, powerful Alphas in the world were staring at me. They were completely paralyzed. Their eyes were blown wide with an primal, instinctual terror they had never felt before. They weren't looking at a wolfless slave. They were looking at a nightmare.

I looked up at Kaelen. His arrogant smirk was gone. His face was the color of ash, his mouth hanging open, his body trembling violently against the stone bench.

I didn't say a word. I didn't need to.

I tightened my grip on my crying son, wrapped the wool cloak securely over his head, and turned my back on the Lycan King.

I walked straight down the center aisle, my heels clicking loudly in the dead silence. Not a single Alpha breathed. Not a single guard moved to stop me. I walked straight through the heavy iron doors and out of the Great Assembly Hall.

I was going to my room. I was going to pack whatever I could carry. And then I was going to run. I would gladly be a hunted rogue in the freezing wilderness for the rest of my life before I ever let another Alpha dictate my fate again.