Chapter 6

Juliet POV

I stepped over the threshold, and the heavy oak doors shut behind me with a resounding thud that felt like a death knell.

The Queen's Audience Chamber was a blinding display of opulence. Wolf totems carved into the golden walls gleamed under the crystal chandeliers, but the air inside was suffocating. It was thick with the sharp scent of pine-Luna Queen Augusta's oppressive aura-and beneath it, the terrifying, intoxicating smell of violent thunderstorms and dark cedar.

I didn't need to look into the shadows on the left to know Lycan King Ezekiel was watching me. My dormant White Wolf trembled, instinctively recognizing an apex predator.

"On your knees," Augusta commanded from her elevated throne.

My shattered knees hit the freezing marble floor. The impact sent a fresh wave of liquid fire radiating from the Silver barbs still embedded in my back, but I locked my jaw, refusing to give them the satisfaction of a scream.

To my right, Prince Bryce sat in his wheelchair, his pale face twisted in a mixture of humiliation and dark fury.

"You dare defy a Royal decree, you wolfless trash?" Augusta's voice was a lethal whip. Her Luna aura crashed down on me, trying to force my face back into the stone. "You humiliate my son in front of your pathetic Pack, and you think you will leave this room alive?"

I forced my head up, meeting the Queen's furious gaze. My operative training kicked in, calculating the exact angle of my defense.

"I refused a lie, Your Majesty," I rasped, my voice remarkably steady despite my bleeding throat. "Alpha Harold forged a death warrant against my mother, falsely accusing her of mating with a Rogue. He intended to use my corpse to pave the way for his favorite daughter, Charlize, to marry the Alpha Heir."

Augusta's eyes narrowed, but her killing intent didn't waver. "Pack politics are beneath me. You still publicly rejected a Prince of the Royal Pack. For that alone, I will have you torn apart."

She raised her hand to summon the guards.

*"Hold."*

A single, low syllable rumbled from the shadows. It wasn't loud, but it vibrated through the marble floor and straight into my bones.

Ezekiel leaned forward, the dim light finally catching his chiseled, battle-hardened face. His abyssal black eyes locked onto mine. He saw right through me. He knew exactly what I was doing-using the Royal Pack as a blade to sever my father's throat.

Instead of exposing me, a dark, amused smirk played on his lips. Suddenly, a wave of pure Lycan dominance swept through the room. It didn't crush me; instead, it effortlessly shattered Augusta's suffocating Luna aura, allowing me to breathe.

"Let the little wolf finish," Ezekiel murmured, swirling the amber liquid in his glass. "She was about to tell us the real reason she couldn't marry the Prince."

My heart hammered against my ribs. Ezekiel was testing me. He was giving me exactly one chance to play my final card.

I looked back at Augusta, stripping away every ounce of my pride to deliver the ultimate, fatal truth in the werewolf world.

"I am broken, Your Majesty," I said, my voice dropping to a hollow whisper. "The years of abuse and the Silver whipped into my flesh have destroyed my internal organs. My cycles stopped years ago. I am barren."

The word echoed in the dead silence of the chamber.

In a society where bloodline and the strength of the Pack were everything, a barren female was worse than dead. She was a curse.

Augusta froze. The sheer disgust on her face morphed into something far more dangerous-a cold, calculating wrath directed entirely away from me.

"Harold Palmer," Augusta hissed, her manicured nails digging into the armrests of her throne. "He dared to offer the Royal Pack a barren, defective vessel? He thought he could insult our bloodline with a ruined Omega?"

I exhaled a microscopic breath. It worked. The target on my back had just been painted onto my father's chest.

But my relief didn't even last a second.

A sudden, horrifying gasp ripped through the room.

I snapped my head to the right. Bryce was gripping the armrests of his wheelchair so hard his knuckles were bone-white. His face had drained of all color, replaced by a sickly, ashen gray.

"Barren..." Bryce choked out, the word tearing from his throat like jagged glass.

The word had triggered something catastrophic. His eyes rolled back, flooding with manic, bloodshot red. A guttural, agonizing roar erupted from his chest-the sound of a half-dead Inner Wolf violently turning on its own host.

"Get Jobe!" Bryce screamed hysterically, his body beginning to violently tremor. "Get the Pack Doctor! Now!"

He thrashed wildly, his paralyzed legs jerking with unnatural, terrifying spasms as his wheelchair tipped dangerously to the side.