Chapter 4

Elara Thorne POV:

The sight of Zane's small, grasping hands lunging toward the box triggered something primal inside me. Every ounce of grief, every shred of a mother's protective instinct, coalesced into a single, explosive impulse. My conscious thought evaporated, replaced by one, all-consuming command that screamed through my soul: *He will not touch her.*

In a movement faster than a blink, a blur of pure, unthinking reaction, I twisted my body away. My arm shot out, not to harm, but to shield. The heel of my palm connected with his small chest, and I pushed. Hard.

Zane stumbled backward, his eyes wide with surprise. He lost his footing and crashed into his younger sister, Freya, who had been toddling right behind him.

Freya went down with a terrified shriek.

The music, the laughter, the life of the party-it all died in an instant. A collective gasp sucked the air from the room. Every eye was on us, a tableau of chaos in the center of the grand hall.

"Freya!" Lyra's voice was a theatrical, piercing scream. She rushed to her daughter, scooping her up in a dramatic flourish. "Her condition! Oh, Goddess, she can't breathe!"

And it was true, to an extent. Freya, startled by the fall and her brother's weight, was pale and wheezing, her little chest heaving with panicked gasps. She had always been a delicate child, prone to respiratory fits when distressed. But I knew Lyra. I saw the calculated terror in her eyes, the way she was turning a minor incident into a life-or-death crisis. She was weaponizing her daughter's fragility.

Ryker's face transformed. The irritation and annoyance were burned away, replaced by a mask of pure, murderous rage. His eyes, cold steel moments before, were now blazing furnaces. He crossed the space between us in two long strides.

His hand clamped around my wrist. The force was crushing, his Alpha strength unchecked. Pain, sharp and blinding, shot up my arm.

"Are you insane?" he snarled, his voice a low, deadly rumble that vibrated through my bones. "You would harm my niece... for a worthless wooden box?"

My wrist throbbed, but my only thought was for the box, which I'd managed to keep cradled securely in my other arm. I hugged it tighter, my shield against this world gone mad.

"Brother, she's jealous!" Lyra wailed, clutching the gasping Freya to her chest. "She's jealous that my children are healthy! She wants to hurt them!"

The accusation, slick and venomous, slithered through the stunned crowd. I saw it land, saw it take root in their eyes. Whispers erupted, turning into a low, condemnatory murmur. The logic was cruel and simple. They didn't know Cora was dead. All they saw was the Luna, whose own child was known to be sickly, lashing out at the Alpha's healthy, celebrated heirs. In their eyes, Lyra's lie was the undeniable truth.

I was trapped. What could I say? *This box holds the ashes of your Alpha's daughter?* To reveal that here, now, in this circus of false celebration, would be the ultimate desecration of her memory. It would be a spectacle of my pain for their entertainment.

My silence was my confession.

For Ryker, it was all the proof he needed. The fire in his eyes turned to ice. He released my wrist, only to lunge for the box itself.

"Let's see it, then," he hissed, his voice devoid of all warmth. "Let's see what treasure is so precious you'd risk a child's life for it."

A strangled cry of pure terror escaped my lips. "No! Don't touch it!"

I tried to back away, but it was useless. His strength, his speed-he was the Alpha. He cornered me against the cold stone wall of the fireplace in seconds. The pack members watched, their faces a mixture of morbid curiosity and cold judgment. No one moved to help. This was Alpha business. A mate putting his unruly Luna in her place.

Across the room, I saw Lyra's face over Freya's shoulder. Her lips were curved into a small, triumphant smirk.

My wolf, Ivy, was a caged, frantic beast inside me, screaming, *Shift! Fight! Protect the cub!*

But I couldn't. To shift and attack my Alpha here would be a death sentence. They would tear me apart, and the box-Cora-would be lost in the carnage.

Despair washed over me, a cold, suffocating tide. I looked at Ryker's hand, reaching, reaching for the box. My eyes pleaded with him, a silent, desperate scream for him to see me, to understand. But the man I had once loved was gone, replaced by this cold, enraged stranger. I tried to form words, to explain, but my throat was closed tight with grief and fear. All that came out was a dry, heaving sob.

His fingers brushed against the smooth wood. He was going to take it. He was going to rip it from my arms and smash it on the floor to assert his dominance, to teach me my lesson.

My daughter's final resting place was about to be destroyed by her own father.

In that last, desperate second, as his grip began to tighten, an idea born of sheer, animal terror exploded in my mind. There was only one way. One final, desperate gambit.

And in the split second before he could tear the box away, I did the one thing he would never, ever expect.