Chapter 7

Stella

I recognized that voice instantly.

Even muffled by the heavy wood, even distorted by rage, I would have known it anywhere.

Eleanor.

The voice beyond the door carried the shrill edge of a fishwife, bearing no resemblance to the gracious, elegant lady I had once known—her carefully cultivated refinement utterly abandoned.

My blood turned to ice in my veins as the implications crashed over me.

In that moment, I became absolutely certain—everything that had happened last night had been Eleanor's doing, orchestrated against me with calculated malice.

Eleanor was here. Eleanor, who had drugged me and delivered me to this room like a wrapped present. Eleanor, who had orchestrated this entire nightmare.

And now she was at the door, demanding to be let in, ready to spring whatever trap she'd so carefully laid.

I felt something crack inside me, a desperate disbelief clawing at my chest—how could it be?

All those years, every kindness Eleanor had shown me, every warm smile and gentle word, every time she'd defended me against the subtle cruelties of high society—had it all been a lie? Had I been nothing more than a pawn in her hands from the very beginning, foolish enough to mistake manipulation for affection?

The humiliation crushed down on me with suffocating weight, and I stood frozen, utterly at a loss for how to face what was coming.

Then, abruptly, a man's hand entered my field of vision—long-fingered and elegant—closing firmly around mine, offering a fleeting moment of unexpected security.

His voice reached my ear, low and rough with that distinctive rasp. "Don't be afraid. When the time comes, just put all the blame on me."

It lasted only a heartbeat before Victor released my hand and moved toward the bed with unhurried composure, methodically straightening the tangled sheets and blankets.

When his gaze fell upon a telltale crimson stain on the white sheets, I caught something flickering darkly in his eyes—something almost possessive, primal—before he calmly drew the comforter over it, concealing the evidence from view.

The noble wolf bloodline in him recognized what that stain meant. What we'd done couldn't be undone.

I watched his back as he worked, something bitter and sweet twisting in my chest—how strange that in this moment, it was Liam's uncle who thought to preserve my dignity.

Click.

The door flew open as Eleanor stormed inside without waiting for permission.

I froze completely where I stood, blood rushing to my head in a dizzying wave of shame and humiliation.

The pain cut deep—I had never imagined that Eleanor, the woman I'd trusted most, would do something like this to me. I needed to know. I had to ask her.

Gathering what little courage I had left, I opened my mouth. "Eleanor... you—"

But before I could finish, Eleanor moved without a word, pulling me behind her back like a mother shielding her cub, then whirled on Victor with a roar of fury.

Her protective stance made it nearly impossible to believe she could be the one who'd orchestrated all this.

"Victor, you've gone too far! How dare you! Preying on Liam's fiancée—what kind of man does such a thing? As the Alpha heir of this family, you should be setting an example, not spitting in the face of every law our kind holds sacred!"

She turned to look at me, my face drained of color, and spoke with righteous indignation. "Stella, don't be afraid. Tell me what he did to you. I'll make sure justice is served!"

I didn't respond, studying this former mother-in-law with guarded suspicion, my thoughts in complete disarray.

Victor, standing off to the side, seemed thoroughly tired of Eleanor's performance. He let out a soft, derisive laugh.

"Sister-in-law, you've arrived remarkably early! Such careful planning—I suppose Father is already on his way as well?"

My brow had barely begun to furrow when Eleanor seized my wrist and pulled me urgently toward the door, talking as she moved.

"Stella, don't listen to him! Don't be afraid! I promise you, I'll handle everything!"

My mind was in complete chaos. I couldn't tell anymore who was the villain between Eleanor and Victor, who was deceiving me and who was telling the truth. All I could do was resist.

"Auntie, I think I should leave now."

But Eleanor gave me no choice. Her grip on my wrist was iron-tight—Beta strength fueled by desperation—as she dragged me down to the main hall, where she immediately began her accusation before Alpha Sinclair, who sat in the center of the room.

I'd seen him before, several times when attending family dinners with Liam.

Even then, seated at the head of the table in casual settings, his presence had been formidable—the kind of authority that didn't need to be announced.

The Alpha power that rolled off him in waves made every wolf in the room instinctively straighten their spine.

Now, facing him under these circumstances, that power felt crushing.

Alpha Sinclair commanded the entirety of Silver City's werewolf empire—every business, every alliance, every resource within the pack world flowed through the Sinclair family's hands.

Every major decision in Silver City's werewolf community passed through him first.

His word was law. His judgment, final.

And I—an Omega whose scent had always been considered defective, whose very presence made other wolves wrinkle their noses and shift subtly away—was about to be judged by the most powerful Alpha in the territory.

"Alpha Sinclair! Victor claimed her without consent—marked Liam's fiancée as his own! This violates every law of our kind! We must have an explanation for this!"

Alpha Sinclair's face turned crimson with rage, his Alpha aura flaring so intensely that several servants actually stumbled back. He bellowed toward the second floor: "Where is he? Where is that animal Victor?"

I stood rooted to the spot, nails digging into my palms, my heart feeling as though it had been carved up with knives.

Heat crawled up my neck and burned across my face.

I could feel every pair of eyes in that hall on me—the servants lingering in doorways, the household staff who'd frozen mid-task.

They all knew now. What had happened upstairs. What I'd done.

The shame was suffocating, pressing down on my chest until I could barely breathe.

My Omega instincts screamed at me to lower my head, to submit to the Alpha rage filling the room, but I forced myself to stay upright.

At least in name, I had been Liam's fiancée.

Alpha Sinclair's hand slammed against the armrest, his face dark with fury as he turned to the butler. "Go! Bring that family-disgracing bastard down here immediately!"