Chapter 3 The Woman Under the Sheet

I glanced at the blood pact and didn't take it.

"If someone needs to sign," I said evenly, "it wouldn't be me."

Declan's jaw tightened instantly. He thought I was deliberately trying to hurt Vanessa.

"Selena, don't push your luck. Your mother is worthless. No power, no brains, no contribution to this world."

He curled his lip in contempt. "Vanessa is still young. She has her whole future ahead of her. Are you really going to ruin her life over a dead woman?"

Victoria nodded vigorously beside him. "Exactly. Your mother did nothing but waste resources and take up oxygen. Or what, are you trying to extort money from us with your mother's death? I clearly overestimated you."

Vanessa started crying again. "Alpha, this is all my fault. Maybe I should resign if that will help Ms. Hawthorne calm down…"

"You are not resigning. Selena, I'll ask you one last time. Are you signing or not?" Declan pulled Vanessa behind him protectively and fixed me with an icy stare.

I listened quietly until they were finished, then shook my head. "You've got this all wrong. The person under that sheet isn't my mother. The only people with the authority to sign that blood pact are Declan and Victoria."

The entire room went silent.

Victoria's face flushed crimson. "You've lost your mind!"

Her voice went shrill. "You're actually cursing my mother to death in front of all these people?"

She jabbed a finger hard into my chest. "Take that back. Right now. Or I'll—"

Declan cut her off with a raised hand. "Selena, I was willing to spare you some dignity because, at the very least, you're attractive. But my mother is the most important person in my life.

"I don't care whether you're my fiancee. I don't care what promise my father made to your family before he died. You do not get to disrespect my mother like that."

He tilted his chin toward the sheet-covered body. "Drag that corpse out. Throw it into the incinerator at the waste plant for fuel. Let her mother serve some purpose for once."

The warrior beside him hesitated. "Alpha… Isn't that a little extreme?"

"I said do it." Declan's voice carried the unmistakable force of an Alpha's command.

"She refuses to sign the blood pact. She enjoys cursing my mother. Fine. Then she can watch her thief of a mother rot in a dump."

The warrior lowered his head and obeyed.

The other werewolves shook their heads, whispering and pointing at me.

"This is what happens when you push Alpha Declan too far."

"Declan's father died young. His mother raised him and Victoria alone. She has no idea how much he depends on his mother."

"First the mother steals, then the daughter curses her fiance's mother? They're hopeless."

I let the gossip wash past me and pulled out my phone, sending a text.

"Declan, are you sure you want to do this?" I asked without looking up. "You'll regret it."

He turned toward me, his expression like stone.

"The one who should regret this is you. Your mother died because she couldn't keep her hands off things that didn't belong to her.

"And even now, you won't let her rest in peace. You had to make a scene. You had to insult my mother. You had to turn a celebration into a funeral. Even if your mother came back to life right now, you'd probably kill her from anger."

The moment the words left his mouth, a car door opened outside.

"What's going on? I thought I heard someone died."

My mother walked into the estate in a beige cashmere coat, a diamond necklace glittering at her throat.

She looked perfectly healthy.