5

**Chapter 5**

Victoria stopped screaming the moment the Council chamber doors closed behind her.

That was the first thing I noticed.

Through the glass-veined doors, I could still see her silhouette between the two guards. Her shoulders stopped shaking. Her head lifted. The fragile, terrified woman who had been clinging to Alexander in the corridor vanished so quickly it almost felt like watching someone remove a mask.

Alexander saw it too.

His face went blank for half a second.

Then the detection array lit beneath Victoria’s feet.

Red light climbed her body, burning through the thin silk of my robe and revealing the mark below her collarbone. It spread wider this time, dark lines coiling under her skin like a brand that had been buried too long. Victoria threw her head back with a cry, but the sound was different now. Not weak. Angry.

Daniel stood beside the chamber doors, reading the report as it appeared on his tablet.

“Rogue-pack binding confirmed,” he said. “Black Thorn origin. Contract age: approximately three years.”

Sarah made a strangled sound. “Three years?”

Emma stared at Victoria through the glass. “But that was when she left.”

Exactly.

Three years ago, when Alexander nearly died. Three years ago, when the Reed family lost half its assets. Three years ago, when Victoria disappeared and Alexander told everyone she had been forced away because she loved him too much to drag him down.

I had believed that story once. I had stood beside his treatment bed while he called Victoria’s name in his fever, and I had told myself that grief could be forgiven. I had been young enough, foolish enough, to think if I stayed and saved him, one day he would wake up and truly see me.

Inside the chamber, Victoria turned toward Alexander. Even through the glass, she found him first.

“Alexander,” she said, voice breaking perfectly. “I can explain.”

Daniel opened the chamber speaker. “Then explain why you formed a binding contract with Black Thorn rogue pack three years ago.”

Victoria’s lips trembled. “They forced me. I had no choice.”

Daniel’s expression did not change. “Explain the forged travel pass.”

“I was scared.”

“Explain the missing silver mine contract.”

“I don’t know anything about that.”

Daniel tapped his tablet. A message appeared on the public wall.

Contract not secured yet. Alexander still trusts me. I need more time.

The corridor went so silent I could hear Alexander’s breath.

Victoria’s face changed.

Just for a second, the softness slipped. Her eyes sharpened, cold and resentful, before tears rushed back to cover it.

“That message wasn’t mine,” she whispered.

Daniel looked at her. “It was recovered from your communication stone.”

Victoria turned fully toward Alexander then, pressing both hands against the glass. My silk robe fell open slightly at her throat, the rogue mark pulsing beneath her skin. Even now, she knew how to use vulnerability like a weapon.

“Alexander, please. You know me. You know I would never hurt you.”

Alexander did not answer.

Victoria’s eyes filled again. “I came back because I missed you. Because I never stopped loving you. I was afraid Scarlett had already taken everything from me. Your home. Your family. Your place beside you.”

A bitter smile almost touched my mouth.

So that was the version she would use now. I had taken what belonged to her. My three years of blood, money, and pain were nothing. In her mouth, I became the thief.

Daniel said coldly, “Scarlett Hayes did not take the Reed family silver mine contract. You did.”

Victoria’s head snapped toward him. “You can’t prove that.”

“Not yet,” Daniel said. “But we can prove you attempted to leave pack territory tonight using a forged pass, after the contract disappeared.”

Victoria’s breathing quickened. She looked at Alexander again. “I was going to find help. Black Thorn still has people watching me. I thought if I left, they wouldn’t hurt you.”

Alexander finally spoke. His voice was rough. “You told me you came back because you had nowhere else to go.”

“I did.”

“You told me your wolf was dying.”

“She was hurting.”

“You told me Scarlett was being cruel.”

Victoria froze.

Alexander’s hands curled into fists at his sides. Blood Moon relapse still burned under his skin, and the bond between us carried flashes of his pain, but for once, he did not look away from the truth in front of him.

Victoria’s mask cracked a little more.

“She was cruel,” Victoria said suddenly, voice rising. “Look at her. She has everything. The clinic. The pack’s respect. Your family’s dependence. Even you.” Her gaze cut to me, ugly now. “Do you know what it felt like to come back and smell her all over you? Her blood in your wolf, her scent in your room, her name in every account that used to belong to your family?”

Alexander stared at her.

Victoria laughed once, sharp and breathless. “Yes, I wore her robe. Yes, I slept in her bed. Yes, I let everyone smell your scent on me. I wanted her to know how it felt.”

Sarah gasped.

Emma whispered, “Victoria…”

Victoria ignored them. Her eyes stayed on me. “You should have broken in Moon Hall. You should have screamed, cried, begged him not to choose me. But you just stood there like you were better than everyone.”

I looked at her through the glass. “No. I stood there because I finally understood he had already chosen.”

That landed harder than anger.

Victoria’s face twisted.

Then she turned on Alexander.

“And you did choose me,” she said. “Don’t act innocent now. Scarlett refused. You took the cure. You held me. You let me into your villa. You let me wear her robe. You wanted to save me because part of you never stopped wanting me.”

Alexander looked like she had struck him.

She pressed closer to the glass, voice dropping into something intimate and poisonous. “If that mark had not appeared, if the contract had not gone missing, you would still be defending me. You would still be telling Scarlett she was jealous.”

No one denied it.

Not Sarah. Not Emma. Not Alexander.

Because everyone knew she was right.

I turned away first. I had heard enough.

“Scarlett,” Alexander said behind me.

I stopped, but did not look at him.

His voice broke lower. “I didn’t know.”

I closed my eyes for one second.

That was the problem. He never knew until the truth hurt him too.

“You knew enough,” I said.

Footsteps approached. Alexander moved around me, standing in front of me with the desperation of a man watching every exit close at once.

“Scarlett, please.” His voice was no longer angry. No longer proud. “I was wrong. I should have listened to you. I should have believed you.”

I looked at him then. Blood Moon heat still clung to him, but the arrogance had finally cracked. He looked wounded, ashamed, and terrified. Once, that would have been enough to soften me.

Tonight, it only made me tired.

“If she had not lied,” I asked, “would you regret choosing her?”

His mouth opened.

No answer came.

That silence told me everything.

Daniel stepped toward us, his expression solemn. “The Council is ready for the final connection. Under emergency severance terms, the cooling-off period is waived.”

Alexander’s face drained of color. “No.”

Daniel looked at him. “The injured party has submitted sufficient evidence.”

Alexander looked at me. “Scarlett, don’t do this.”

Behind the glass, Victoria began laughing softly. “Now you want her? After making sure I couldn’t save you?”

Alexander flinched, but I did not.

The doors to the final connection chamber opened at the end of the corridor. Silver light spilled across the floor, bright and merciless beneath the red Blood Moon.

I walked toward it.

Alexander followed me like a man being led to judgment.

At the threshold, he caught my wrist, careful this time not to touch the bandage. “Scarlett,” he whispered, “I can make this right.”

I looked down at his hand, then back at his face.

“No,” I said. “You can only watch me leave.”

Then I stepped into the chamber, and the mate bond between us screamed.