CHAPTER TEN

Beta Kelra’s command to stay was a whisper lost in the sudden, violent shift of energy. I was rooted to the spot, my personal agony forgotten, replaced by a primal, pack-wide alarm. Through the glass doors, the scene in the ballroom was a frozen tableau of shock.

The stranger was… immense. Not just in size, though he rivaled Kairi in height and breadth, but in presence. An Alpha aura radiated from him, as potent and untamed as a storm. It was a wild, raw power, different from Kairi’s controlled, authoritative dominance. This was feral, ancient, and it made the air crackle. My own wolf, usually subdued and wary, whimpered inside me, instinctively wanting to both submit and flee.

And Kairi… Kairi stood between this force of nature and Bianca. His back was to me, his shoulders set in a rigid line of pure defiance. He didn’t postur or shout. His silence was more terrifying than any roar. He was a wall. An immovable object meeting an irresistible force.

“You are not welcome here,” Kairi’s voice cut through the tension, low and lethally calm. It was the voice he used before he tore out a threat’s throat. “You will lower your voice and you will leave. Now.”

The stranger let out a dark, humorless laugh. “This doesn’t concern you, pup. I’m here for what’s mine.” His gaze, burning with a possessive fire, never left Bianca, who was trembling, her face as white as her dress. She looked genuinely, utterly terrified.

“Nothing and no one in my territory is ‘yours’ without my say-so,” Kairi countered, his tone dropping another degree into freezing territory. He took a slight step back, shifting his stance to shield Bianca more completely. The movement was subtle, instinctive. Protective.

And in that moment, I saw it. I saw the difference.

This wasn’t like when he’d “saved” me from Jack. That had been about possession. About retrieving something that belonged to him, a piece of property that was being misused by another. His anger then had been cold, dismissive. He’d “protected” me only to later demand payment in the most degrading way possible.

This was different.

The way his body curved around Bianca, creating a fortress with his own form. The way his focus was absolute, not a fraction of his attention spared for the gawking crowd. The raw, visceral energy rolling off him wasn’t just about defending his territory. It was about defending her.

This was heartfelt. This was genuine. This was love.

The realization was a sucker punch to my soul, stealing what little breath I had left. The jealousy I’d been fighting all night curdled into a bitter, hopeless ache. He would never look at me that way. He would never stand for me that way. I was the weak Omega he was saddled with. She was the princess he would burn the world for.

The stranger took a threatening step forward. “You think your title and your pretty palace scare me? I’ve torn apart stronger Alphas for less.”

Before the stranger could take another step, Kairi moved. It was a blur of motion. One second he was standing still, the next he had closed the distance, his hand locked around the stranger’s throat, not to choke, but to hold him in an iron grip, forcing him to meet his eyes.

“Try it,” Kairi whispered, the sound carrying in the dead silence. “Lay a finger on her, and I will show you what a real Alpha does to those who threaten what is his.”

The threat was absolute. Final. The stranger’s eyes widened slightly, a flicker of surprise and grudging respect breaking through his fury. He had underestimated Kairi’s resolve.

For a long, tense moment, they were locked in a silent battle of wills, two colossal forces pushing against each other. Finally, the stranger snarled, wrenching himself out of Kairi’s grip. “This isn’t over,” he spat, his eyes promising vengeance. He shot one last, burning look at Bianca before turning and storming out of the ballroom, the crowd parting for him like the Red Sea.

The silence held for a beat longer, and then chaos erupted into relieved chatter.

Kairi didn’t acknowledge the crowd. He immediately turned to Bianca, his entire demeanor transforming. The ruthless Alpha was gone. In his place was a man radiating concern. He cupped her face, his thumbs stroking her cheeks, his voice too low for anyone else to hear, but the tenderness in the gesture was a language everyone understood.

“Are you hurt? Did he touch you?” he murmured, his brow furrowed with worry.

She shook her head, tears welling in her eyes as she leaned into his touch. “No. You… you stopped him.”

He pulled her into his embrace, tucking her head under his chin, holding her as if she were the most precious, fragile thing in the world. “I will always stop them,” he whispered, the words a vow that echoed in the hushed room. “I will always protect you. Always.”

It was the most beautiful and most devastating thing I had ever witnessed.

My heart, already in fragments, turned to dust. I stood on the balcony, invisible, the glass door a barrier between their world and mine. The cold night air bit into my skin, but it was nothing compared to the frozen wasteland expanding inside my chest.

As he held her, his eyes lifted, scanning the crowd, perhaps assessing if the threat was truly gone.

And they landed on me.

Our eyes met through the glass. I was standing in the shadows, alone, my tear-streaked makeup probably visible in the moonlight. I saw the recognition in his gaze, the briefest flicker of something—surprise? guilt?—before his expression shuttered closed again, becoming the remote, impassive mask of the Alpha.

He looked right at me, saw the utter devastation on my face, saw the evidence of the pain his words and his actions had caused…

And then he looked away.

Deliberately. Completely.

He bent his head back to Bianca, whispering something that made her nod. Then, with an arm firmly around her shoulders, he turned and guided her away from the ballroom, toward the private quarters, leaving the stunned crowd behind.

He walked away. He consoled her. He protected her. He loved her.

And he ignored me.

That was the final straw. The last thread of my composure snapped.

A broken, ragged sob escaped my lips. I clapped a hand over my mouth, but it was too late. The tears I had fought so hard to hold back all night came in a torrential, silent flood, streaming down my face, dripping onto the emerald silk of my dress—the armor that had failed me completely.

Beta Kelra turned, his face filled with pity. “Sze, I…”

I couldn’t hear it. I couldn’t stand his kindness, not when *his* cruelty felt so absolute. I stumbled back, away from the doors, away from the light, into the deeper shadows of the balcony.

“I need to… I have to go,” I choked out, my voice unrecognizable.

I turned and fled, not back into the ballroom, but toward the balcony’s stone railing. The gardens below were dark, a labyrinth of shadows. I just needed to get away, to be anywhere but here, where the evidence of his love for another was seared into my retinas.

I gripped the cold stone, my body shaking with silent, wrenching sobs. I was so lost in my grief that I didn’t hear the soft footsteps approaching from behind.

A hand, large and unfamiliar, settled on my shoulder.

I jumped, whirling around, expecting Beta Kelra.

It wasn’t him.

The stranger—the wild Alpha—stood there. He had circled the building and found me. Up close, he was even more intimidating, his eyes gleaming with a predatory light in the darkness. He smelled of pine, cold wind, and danger.

“Don’t cry over a male who doesn’t see your worth, little wolf,” he said, his voice a low, mesmerizing rumble. “It’s a waste of perfectly beautiful tears.” His thumb brushed a tear from my cheek, his touch startlingly gentle. “Come with me if you want to see what it truly means to be cherished by an Alpha.”