Chapter 7

Aaliyah POV

The sharp pain in my eardrums didn't fade; it amplified. I gasped, clutching the heavy velvet blankets as a rush of heat flooded my veins. Deep within my soul, the dormant entity I had always believed was nonexistent-my Inner Wolf-twitched. It wasn't a full awakening, but a mere ripple of the legendary White Wolf bloodline.

Suddenly, the world exploded in sound.

The faint rustle of leaves outside my window sounded like a roaring tempest. I could hear the rhythmic thumping of footsteps across the estate, the hushed whispers of servants, and then, a sharp, bitter scent of decaying leaves hit my enhanced senses, accompanied by a pathetic sob.

It was coming from the guest quarters across the courtyard. Madam Joanne Fletcher.

"You must listen to your father, Alexandria," Joanne wept, her voice trembling with the pathetic submission of a broken Beta wife. "Cloyd just Mind-Linked me. He insists you step down. Emmaline is... she is more pleasing to Alphas. Don't fight your sister for the Brewer match."

A furious snarl echoed through the walls, laced with the heavy, suffocating scent of crimson roses. Alexandria.

"She is not my sister! She is a Half-blood born from a filthy Breeder!" Alexandria roared, her voice vibrating with pure, unadulterated rage. "How can you be so weak, Mother? You are a pureblood Beta wife, yet you cower and lick the toes of a Mistress just because Father commands it? I will not surrender the Future Luna title to Emmaline. I will secure this alliance, and I will drag us out of this pathetic misery!"

Joanne's Inner Wolf whimpered, utterly crushed by her own daughter's dominant aura. Her quiet, defeated sobs filled the room, marking an irreparable fracture between mother and daughter.

I sat frozen in my bed, my heart pounding against my ribs. Before I could fully process the family drama, my newly awakened hearing latched onto another conversation, guided by the sickeningly sweet clash of rosemary and tuberose.

Mistress Caren's secluded room.

"Aaliyah is a sickly Wolfless coward," Emmaline sneered, her voice dripping with arrogance. "She won't compete. But Alexandria... she still has that pureblood status. What if Luna Antonia favors her?"

A low, chilling chuckle slithered through the air. Mistress Caren.

"Let your father handle Joanne," Caren purred, her tone laced with venom. "As for Alexandria... pureblood status means nothing if she cannot even stand on her own two feet."

"What do you mean, Mother?"

"I have acquired a rare, tasteless extract of Wolfsbane," Caren whispered, the word sending a jolt of pure ice down my spine. "Just a micro-dose. I will have it slipped into Alexandria's food on the day Luna Antonia arrives. It won't kill her, but it will temporarily paralyze her Inner Wolf. Her legs will turn to jelly. She will collapse like a pathetic, weak Omega right in front of the Brewer Luna. Antonia Brewer despises weakness above all else."

Emmaline gasped, followed by a cruel, delighted laugh. "It's brilliant. Once I complete the Marking ceremony and become the Future Luna, I will use the Brewer Pack's warriors to throw Joanne and Alexandria out of the territory like the stray Rogues they are."

The malicious laughter echoed in my sensitive ears, making my stomach churn. I pressed my hands against my temples, a cold sweat breaking out across my forehead. I had just uncovered a deadly conspiracy. This information was a loaded gun, and I was the only one holding it.

My heart raced erratically. The sheer malice of this world was suffocating. Desperate to ground myself, I closed my eyes and pushed my hyper-sensitive hearing outward, past the toxic walls of the Dowager's Estate, reaching toward the bustling Pack Marketplace. I needed to find a familiar, comforting sound-perhaps the gentle footsteps of my little brother, Caiden, who was supposed to be buying my favorite blackberry pie.

Instead, my senses brushed against something entirely unexpected, something that made my newly stirring White Wolf tremble with an instinctual, terrifying anticipation.