Chapter 6

Lane Conlay stood quietly by the window of her bedchambers, watching the afternoon sun cast long shadows over the Blackwood pack lands. The room was mostly stripped of its warmth; Maya had already packed the finest silver and the ledger books into the hidden compartments of their travel trunks. All that was left was to wait for the royal decree to arrive.

Lane certainly did not expect that as soon as she got back from the Capital, the peace would be shattered.

The heavy oak doors were not just opened—they were violently slammed against the stone wall. Alpha Ethan Blackwood stormed into the room, a tempest of dark Alpha aura rolling off his shoulders. His face was flushed with irritation, his jaw clenched so tightly the muscles jumped.

He didn't stop until he was looming directly over Lane, his gray-brown eyes flashing with a dangerous, warning heat.

"What were you doing at the Alpha King's palace, Lane?" Ethan demanded, his voice dropping into a low, threatening growl that vibrated through the floorboards.

Lane didn't flinch. She turned slowly from the window, her expression perfectly smooth, looking at him as if he were nothing more than an uninvited guest.

Before she could answer, Ethan took a step closer, pointing a harsh finger at her. "Let me make one thing completely clear to you right now. If you went to the Capital to beg the Alpha King to cancel my marriage to Maris, you are going to regret it. I am the Alpha of this pack, and my decisions are final. No amount of petty tears or royal pleading is going to change that."

Lane looked at his raised finger, then up into his furious face. She let out a soft, completely calm breath. "I didn't do that, Ethan."

"You better not have," Ethan scoffed, his chest heaving as he crossed his arms tightly. He looked around the room, completely missing the fact that her jewelry boxes were entirely empty. "You better behave yourself from now on, Lane. My wedding to Maris is in exactly three weeks. The entire northern alliance is watching us. I am bringing glory to the Blackwood name, and I absolutely will not tolerate any distractions, petty jealousy, or commotions from you."

"I told you before," Lane said, her voice a chillingly level contrast to his roaring temper. "I won't interfere with your wedding. I won't interfere with anything at all."

Ethan narrowed his eyes, searching her calm face for any sign of deception. Seeing nothing but an eerie, cold compliance, he let out a sharp, mocking breath. He thought he had successfully broken her pride. He thought his threats had finally forced his "weak, dependent" fated mate to accept her reality.

"Good," Ethan said coldly, turning his back to her and walking toward the door. He paused at the threshold, looking over his shoulder one last time to deliver a final, cruel blow. "Because let me remind you—I am keeping you here out of charity and the promise I made to your dead mother. If you try anything, if you make a single scene during the ceremony or embarrass me in front of Maris, I will strip you of your title and throw you out of this pack myself. Let’s see how long a fragile Omega survives in the wild without my name protecting her."

With that final threat, Ethan stepped out into the corridor and slammed the door shut behind him.

For a long moment, the bedroom was entirely silent.

Maya, who had been standing frozen in the corner of the room during the entire encounter, was shaking. Her hands were clenched into tight fists, her knuckles turning completely white. The sheer, unadulterated disrespect from a man who had fed off Lane’s wealth for a year was too much to bear.

Maya turned to Lane, her voice cracking with a mixture of tears and absolute fury. "Milady! Why do you let him disrespect you like that? Why do you just stand there and let him speak to you as if you are a beggar living off his scraps?"

Before Lane could answer, the dam broke inside the loyal maid. Maya’s Silvermoon pride—the pride of a warrior pack that had never bowed to anyone—completely took over.

Maya whirled around, marched straight to the heavy doors, and flung them open. She stepped out into the corridor, looking down the hall where Ethan’s heavy boots were still echoing against the stone.

"Alpha Ethan!" Maya screamed at the top of her lungs, her voice echoing violently through the entire eastern wing of the castle.

Ethan stopped in his tracks, turning around with a look of lethal, dark fury on his face, shocked that a mere maid would dare raise her voice to him.

But Maya didn't back down. She pointed back toward Lane's room, her face flushed with righteous anger as she shouted for the entire packhouse to hear:

"You don't know who she is! You think she is a weak, broken creature depending on your charity? She is a pure-blooded Alpha! She holds the bloodline of the legendary generals who built the North! And yet you are looking down upon her like she is nothing! You are blind, Ethan Blackwood! You are completely blind!"

"Maya, enough," Lane’s voice cut through the corridor, quiet but laced with an absolute, undeniable command that instantly made Maya freeze.

Ethan stared down the hallway at them, his eyes wide with a mix of shock and mockery. He let out a loud, arrogant laugh, shaking his head as he turned back around. "Keep dreaming, maid. A pack of dead heroes produces nothing but ghosts."

He walked away, completely unaware that the countdown to his own destruction had just reached its final days.