Chapter 5

The jeers and wagers rose, drowning me like a tide. To them, I was nothing but flesh to be bought and claimed.

The Pine Pack stripped of power? My “simple-minded sister”?

I laughed—cold, sharp.

They didn’t know. The sister they mocked as a fool was the Pack’s hidden true Alpha.

And the Bay Pack, the Harbor Pack? To me, nothing but ants waiting to be crushed.

I struck. My hand seized Ulrica’s tie. Shock cracked across his face—never expecting resistance, never believing I could wield such strength.

With a snarl, I lifted him clean off his feet and hurled him down onto the wedding banquet table.

CRASH!

Porcelain, glass, and silver shattered in a storm. Wine and cake splattered like blood and bone. Ulrica lay buried in ruins, dazed, broken.

Before the crowd gasped, I lunged for Sandra and her pack of jackals.

Smack! Smack! Smack!

Slaps cracked like thunder, their screams muffled by the fists that followed.

I yanked Sandra’s hair, grinding her face into the cream of the cake.

My boot drove into another wolf’s gut, folding her to the floor with a shriek.

Another tried to flee—her gown ripped in my grip, silk shredding to tatters.

“Selena! How dare you—ahh!”

“My father won’t forgive—ahh! Stop!”

“Ulrica! Help me!”

Their cries drowned in sobs and pleas. My strikes were ruthless, precise, enough to break them without killing.

Bloodied faces, torn gowns, disheveled hair—every inch of them disgraced.

I tore lengths of satin from the décor, bound their hands and feet, ripped them down to their underclothes, and dragged their writhing bodies across the floor.

Their wails pierced the air as I hoisted them on the ropes strung before the shattered screen, dangling like trophies.

“Let me down!”

“Don’t look at me!”

“I’ll kill you, Selena! I swear I’ll kill you!”

Sandra and her friends wept, humiliated, screaming into the hall.

Panic swept the guests. Screams, crashes, stampeding feet. Wolves fled for the doors like cattle.

Black-clad Warriors surged toward me. I twisted aside, caught one by the wrist, slammed him into another—both tumbled like broken dolls.

The hall fell into chaos.

In the frenzy, I slipped a communicator from a terrified guest’s pocket, ducked behind a pillar, and dialed fast.

The line clicked immediately.

“Abel.” My voice was steel. “Bring every fighter you have to Brookside Hotel. And mobilize all forces. Find Selena and my parents. Now.”

I hung up, tossed the device back at the dumbstruck guest, and stepped into the open again.

Ulrica staggered to his feet, bloodied amid the wreckage.

My lips curved in a cold, razor smile.

Don’t rush. The real show has only just begun.