Chapter 4

Elara POV

The drive back to Blackwood Manor was a blur of numb, mechanical movements. When I pushed open the heavy oak doors, the Great Hall swallowed me whole. It was a cavern of polished dark wood and suffocating silence, smelling heavily of smoked cedarwood and cold steel.

Declan was already there. He stood by the massive stone fireplace beneath the Blackwood crest, his posture rigid, as if he had been waiting for the exact moment my foot crossed the threshold.

"Sylvia Vance has been terminated," he said. His voice was eerily calm, echoing off the marble walls.

A brief, foolish spark of victory flared in my chest. "Because she threatened me?"

Declan let out a low, humorless breath that wasn't quite a laugh. "No. I fired her for two reasons. First, she displayed unforgivable weakness. A high-ranking Pack member allowing a wolfless Omega to strike her publicly is a humiliation to the hierarchy." He turned his head, his piercing eyes locking onto mine. "Second, she overstepped. Threatening your mother's life is my leverage, Elara. Not hers."

The spark in my chest died, replaced by a freezing block of ice. I wasn't a wife to be defended. I was just a piece on his board, and Vance had simply touched his property without permission.

"I want to dissolve the agreement," I said, the words tearing from my throat, trembling with a rage I could barely contain.

Declan had already started walking toward the grand staircase. He stopped, but he didn't even bother to turn around. "Read the human clauses of our contract. You breach it, you lose all financial support. More importantly, the Pack funds keeping the machines breathing for Hazle will stop the second you walk out that door."

He started up the stairs again. He was untouchable. A billionaire Alpha who held my mother's beating heart in his wallet.

"I have proof," I whispered.

He paused, glancing over his shoulder with a look of mild annoyance.

"Karly Rowe," I said, my voice gaining strength.

Declan frowned slightly, but his arrogant facade remained intact.

"...and Ava Blackwood."

The air in the Great Hall instantly turned to lead. Declan's calm facade shattered. His Alpha aura exploded outward, a physical, crushing weight that slammed into my chest, driving the breath from my lungs. In a blur of terrifying speed, he crossed the room and pinned me against the cold stone of the fireplace.

His forearm pressed against my collarbone, his eyes burning with the violent, feral rage of his Inner Wolf, Tyrant.

"What do you know?" he snarled, his voice dropping to a demonic octave.

I was suffocating, my human instincts screaming at me to submit, but the memory of that little girl riding his wolf form kept my chin up. "Is she your daughter?" I choked out, staring directly into his furious eyes.

Silence stretched between us, thick and dangerous. The muscles in his jaw feathered. He didn't deny it. He didn't lie.

"*She is my responsibility,*" he finally said, his voice a lethal, vibrating hum.

He slowly stepped back, smoothing the lapels of his suit as he forced his Inner Wolf down. The terrifying Alpha CEO returned, but I had seen the crack. I had found the nerve.

"Your stepbrother called my office," Declan said, his tone returning to its usual icy detachment. "He needs money. Again. I have invited him and your stepmother for dinner tomorrow night."

"No," I gasped, rubbing my bruised collarbone. "I won't do it. I won't play house for you."

Declan stepped into my space again, leaning down until his lips were inches from my ear. "You will sit at that table, and you will play the happy, submissive mate. If you refuse, I will have Hazle transferred to a state facility immediately. The ambulance will be waiting at Pinecrest before your family finishes their appetizers." He pulled back, his eyes dead and cold. "Don't test me, Elara."

He turned and walked up the stairs, leaving me alone in the shadows of the Great Hall.

I leaned against the fireplace, my legs trembling. Confronting him directly was suicide. He had the money, the power, and the physical strength to crush me. If I was going to survive tomorrow night's dinner with my parasitic step-family, and if I was ever going to break these chains, I couldn't just fight him. I had to destroy the ground he stood on.