Chapter 4

Elfrieda POV:

The Grind Café was busy with humans and wolves alike. It was neutral territory, meaning violence was strictly forbidden by the Council. It was the only reason Janice felt safe enough to meet me.

She was sitting in a corner booth, wearing oversized sunglasses and sipping a latte. She didn't look injured. She looked smug.

I sat down opposite her. I didn't order anything.

"You look terrible, honey," Janice said, lowering her glasses. "The scar really ruins your aesthetic."

"Cut the crap, Janice," I said. "What do you want?"

She reached into her designer bag and pulled out a folded piece of paper. She slid it across the table.

It was a copy of their marriage license.

"I just wanted to make sure you knew your place," she said, her voice dripping with venom. "You are the placeholder. I am the wife. In the human world, and in his heart."

"You are a mistress using illegal pheromones to drug an Alpha," I countered calmly. "If the Council finds out, you'll be made Rogue."

Her eyes narrowed. "You think you're so smart. But you're nothing. You can't even shift. You're a genetic dead end. Jaxon hates touching you. He told me your skin feels cold."

"He didn't seem to mind when he was using me to secure his inheritance."

Janice's face twisted in rage. She stood up, grabbing her hot coffee.

"You bitch!"

She splashed the steaming liquid directly onto me.

She aimed perfectly. The boiling coffee hit my healing arm.

"Agh!" I cried out.

The heat reacted with the silver residue still in my tissue. It felt like being branded with a hot iron. I jumped up, clutching my arm, knocking my chair over.

The café went silent.

"Oh my god! She attacked me!" Janice screamed, dropping the cup and shrinking back in a fake display of terror.

The door chimes jingled. Jaxon burst in. He must have been waiting in the car.

He saw me standing over Janice, my face twisted in pain, while Janice cowered.

"Elfrieda!"

The Alpha Voice hit me like a physical hammer. It forced my knees to buckle. I fell to the floor, gasping.

"What did you do?" Jaxon roared, rushing to Janice.

"She... she threatened to kill me," Janice sobbed, burying her face in his shirt. "She said she would finish what the chandelier started. She threw the table!"

It was such a blatant lie. The coffee was dripping off my arm. The cup was on her side of the table.

"Jaxon, look," I gasped, holding up my burned, stained arm. "She threw the coffee..."

"Silence!" Jaxon commanded.

The power of his order clamped my mouth shut. My vocal cords paralyzed. Tears of frustration streamed down my face.

He looked at me with pure disgust. "I knew you were jealous, Elfrieda. But violence? Against a human?"

He didn't even smell the lie. He was so deep under her spell, so blinded by his own arrogance.

"Is that how a Luna behaves?" he spat.

People in the café were whispering.

"Hey, buddy," a human man stood up. "The lady in the red threw the coffee. I saw it."

"Mind your business!" Jaxon snarled, his eyes flashing wolf-gold. The human sat back down, terrified by the primal aggression.

Jaxon turned back to me. "Get out of my sight. Go home. We will deal with your punishment later."

He put his arm around Janice and guided her out, cooing softly to her.

I sat on the floor of the café, coffee staining my clothes, my arm throbbing. The humiliation was absolute.

But as I sat there, something changed.

The sadness evaporated. The heartbreak turned into ice.

Deep in my chest, the silent wolf stirred. She didn't whimper this time. She didn't howl.

She growled.

It was a low, dangerous vibration that rattled my ribcage.

I stood up. I refused the napkins offered by a sympathetic waitress.

I walked out of the café. I wasn't going home to wait for punishment. I was done waiting.