LOGINChapter Seventy-OneIrene’s POVI jerked awake to screams echoing through the courtyard. My ribs still burned from Devon’s claws last night. I dragged myself to the window, heart pounding.Down below, the entire pack had been forced to gather. Devon stood on the balcony like a king of death, wearing a new dark crown. Gideon’s dried blood stained his collar. He looked untouchable and terrifying.“Let it be known,” he announced, his voice booming like thunder, “anyone who mourns the traitor Gideon Vale will join him. No tears. No whispers. No black armbands. Defy me and your family burns with you.”The crowd stayed dead silent. Then a woman in front—Gideon’s cousin—let out a choked sob.Devon’s head snapped toward her. Without hesitation, he leaped from the balcony, landed smoothly, and slashed her across the face with his claws. Blood sprayed. She screamed and dropped to her knees, clutching her cheek.“Take her eyes if she cries again,” he ordered his Silverclaw enforcers. They nodded
Chapter Seventy Irene’s POV The iron taste of blood lingered on my tongue as Devon’s claws dug into my arm, dragging me from the blood-soaked altar. Gideon’s body still lay crumpled behind us, throat slashed open like a slaughtered lamb. The pack hall reeked of fear and copper. No one dared speak. “You’re mine now, wife,” Devon snarled, his voice is like a blade dragged across stone. His icy grey eyes burned with something far worse than the obsession I once knew. This was pure, venomous hatred. Tripled. Tenfold. It poured off him like black smoke. I tried to wrench free. “Devon, what happened to you? You fought for me—” He halted us and slammed me against the nearest pillar so hard my vision starred. His claws—fully extended—hovered at my throat, one wrong breath away from opening it. “Fought for you? I lost everything because of you. Because I was weak enough to love a traitor’s daughter.” His breath scorched my cheek. “Now I’ll make you wish I’d let Gideon have you.” Th
CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE IRENE’S POV The silk of the wedding gown felt like chains against my skin. I stood motionless in front of the tall mirror while the assistant—some trembling Omega girl whose name I hadn’t bothered to learn—fastened the final row of pearl buttons down my spine. The dress was exquisite in the cruelest way: ivory silk that clung to every curve, embroidered with silver thread that caught the light like fresh blood on snow. Gideon had chosen it. Of course he had. A symbol of purity for the man who had beaten the love of my life into the mud and stolen everything. My neck still ached from where the enforcers had dragged me yesterday. Bruises bloomed across my arms in ugly purple fingerprints. Every time I breathed too deeply, I remembered Devon’s broken body lying in the rain, reaching for me. And now I was being dressed like a prize sow for slaughter. “You look beautiful, miss,” the assistant whispered, not meeting my eyes in the mirror. I smiled thinly. “Get me s
CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT — Devon Becomes Omega IRENE’S POV The final duet was never meant to be fair. Rain had already begun to threaten the sky when Devon stepped into the blood-stained circle for the last time. The elders had gathered under heavy cloaks. My father stood among them like a king who had already sold his daughter to keep his throne. Gideon waited at the opposite edge, freshly bandaged from the third fight. His silver-edged blade gleamed even under the darkening clouds. Devon looked like death walking. The three black brands on his chest had spread. His side was still bleeding from where Gideon had driven the blade in during the last challenge. Every breath he took seemed to cost him. Yet he rolled his shoulders, cracked his neck, and refused the short sword Zane tried to press into his hand. “No steel,” he said, voice hoarse but steady. His icy grey eyes found mine across the ring. “I won’t need it.” My heart hammered against my ribs so hard I thought it might c
CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN — The Third Fall IRENE’S POV The third challenge was set for night. This time, claws were allowed. Teeth were allowed and steel was allowed. And surrender had to be forced. When the elders agreed, I felt something inside me go cold. By sunset, the whole pack already knew. Devon had lost twice. Two black brands had burned into his chest from the last two losses. His power was fading. And if he lost tonight, he would be one step away from the lowest rank a wolf could fall into. Omega. Not by birth. By punishment. By failure. By public stripping. I found him in the preparation chamber beneath the old fighting grounds. He was alone. Devon sat on a wooden bench, wrapping cloth around his bleeding knuckles like he was preparing for a casual training match and not his own destruction. His shirt was open. The first two brands sat beneath his collarbone, black and raw. I stopped at the doorway. He did not look up. “You’re supposed to
CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX — The Second ChallengeIRENE’S POVBy morning, Devon’s first loss had become the pack’s favorite meal.Everyone was eating from it.In the kitchens, servants whispered that his curse had made him unstable.In the courtyard, warriors said Gideon had exposed what Devon truly was.In the council halls, elders spoke in low voices about whether Rule 101 should even be allowed to continue if Devon could not control himself.And in my father’s study, I stood before him while he looked at me like all of it was my fault.“You saw him yesterday,” my father said.I said nothing.“He broke the rules in front of the entire pack. He nearly killed Gideon in a sanctioned trial.”“Gideon provoked him.”My father’s eyes narrowed. “A true Alpha cannot be provoked into stupidity.”I looked away.He leaned back in his chair. “If Devon loses again today, this foolish resistance ends. You will prepare yourself to become Gideon’s Luna.”My stomach tightened.“Do you understand me?”I force
The wine cellar is dead quiet except for the drip of a leaky barrel somewhere behind us. Gideon steps fully into the dim red glow of the emergency light, arms crossed, jaw tight, eyes burning holes straight through me.“What the fuck did I just listen to?” His voice is ice.I smooth the front of my
“Finally,” Devon growled against my mouth, the word vibrating through my bones.His tongue dragged slow and deliberate over the spilled blood on my cheek, licking every warm drip clean like it was the sweetest thing he’d ever tasted. I shuddered, hating the way my thighs clenched around his waist.
Irene's POVThe sun bled out behind the pines when I reached the clearing. Gideon was already there, arms crossed, jaw tight."He left at dawn," he said before I could speak. "Silverclaw delegation. Some border dispute up North. Won't be back for two days."Two days.My pulse kicked hard. "That's t
Morning came too fast.My eyes snapped open to the dim light leaking through the thin curtains of the Omegas’ quarters. The mattress under me felt too small, the air too cold, and my heartbeat too loud.I was still trembling.Everything I’d seen in that safe—everything Devon had done—echoed like a







