Chapter 6

*Aria POV:*

The silence in the garden was heavy, pressing down on us like a physical weight. The colorful balloons and streamers now looked grotesque against the grim reality of the moment.

I stood beside James, my spine straight, my face devoid of emotion. Inside, I was a graveyard, but outside, I was ice.

"What... what do you mean?" Theo's voice trembled. He looked from me to his mother, Lydia, who was turning a sickly shade of grey. "Mother? You said... you said the baby died of natural causes. You said Aria was weak."

Lydia clutched her pearl necklace, her eyes darting around the crowd of pack members. "She is lying! She is hysterical! Security, remove them!"

"No one moves," James commanded.

His Alpha Aura rolled out in a suffocating wave. It wasn't just fear; it was a biological imperative. Every wolf in the vicinity, except for me and his own elites, lowered their heads, their inner wolves forcing them to submit to a King.

I reached into my purse. I didn't have a weapon. I had something far more destructive.

I pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. *It was a copy of a DNA test. James had resources everywhere-money buys loyalty, and a nurse at the city hospital had been more than happy to swap a vial of blood for a year's salary.*

"You want the truth, Theo?" I asked, my voice flat. "Here."

I threw the paper at him. It fluttered in the breeze before hitting his chest.

Theo scrambled to catch it. His hands shook so badly he almost dropped it. Elena, still sitting on her throne, went pale. She tried to stand up, but the weight of James's aura pinned her to the chair.

"Theo, don't read that!" Elena shrieked. "It's a forgery! They are trying to trick you!"

Theo ignored her. His eyes scanned the document. I watched the blood drain from his face.

"Paternity exclusion," he whispered, reading the medical jargon. "0% probability."

He looked up, his eyes wide and watery. "This... this isn't my son?"

"Of course not," I said coldly. "Elena has been sleeping with a Rogue from the Northern Wilds for a year. Everyone knew she was loose. Everyone except you."

"And my baby?" Theo took a step toward me, the paper crumpling in his fist. "My son?"

"Your parents killed him," I said. I pointed a finger at Lydia. "She wore gloves dusted with silver. She kicked me in the stomach. Silver burns us, Theo. It stops our healing. It poisoned the placenta. My baby suffocated inside me while I begged for his life."

A collective gasp went through the crowd. To harm a pup was the ultimate sin in our culture. To use silver on a pregnant female was a war crime.

Theo turned to his mother. The look on his face was terrifying. It was the look of a man whose entire world had just snapped.

"Mother?" he choked out. "Tell me she's lying."

Lydia opened her mouth to speak, to spin another web of lies, but the weight of her guilt-and the fury of the Alpha King standing next to me-was too much.

She clutched her chest. Her face twisted in agony. "I... I did it for the pack... for the bloodline..."

She collapsed.

"Lydia!" Marcus, Theo's father, roared. He caught her before she hit the grass.

But Theo didn't move to help her. He turned to Elena.

Elena was sobbing now, clutching the baby who was wailing in the tense atmosphere. "Theo, please! I was lonely! You were always working! The Rogue... he made me feel special!"

"You made me cast out my Mate," Theo growled. His voice deepened, his canine teeth extending as his wolf fought for control. "You made me kill my son."

"I didn't mean for it to happen!" Elena screamed.

The sound of a slap echoed through the garden. It wasn't Theo.

It was Marcus. He had left his unconscious wife on the grass and stormed over to his son. He punched Theo squarely in the jaw, sending him sprawling into the dirt.

"You fool!" Marcus bellowed, kicking his own son. "You let a whore into our house! You destroyed our legacy! You are no Alpha!"

The Black Rose Pack was in chaos. The leaders were fighting, the Luna was unconscious, and the heir was a fraud.

I watched it all. I watched Theo bleeding in the dirt, looking up at me with pleading eyes.

*Aria,* his voice echoed in my head, weak and desperate. *Help me.*

I looked at him. I remembered how he used to hold me. I remembered how he promised to protect me.

Then I remembered the cold earth of the servant's room.

*I can't hear you,* I sent back through the link, my mental voice sharp as a blade.

I turned to James. "I'm done here."

James nodded, wrapping a protective arm around my shoulders. We walked away, leaving the screams and the ruin behind us. I didn't feel happy. I didn't feel sad.

I just felt the first stirring of something new. The desire to burn it all down.