Chapter 10: A Verdict

The walk to the Alpha’s hall felt longer than any corridor in the mansion.

Levi moved between the three princes like a prisoner being escorted to judgment. Kai walked slightly ahead, Aaron followed close, while Dexter stayed closest on the right, his expression serene, as if he had not just shattered his brother’s trust.

The great double doors of the Alpha’s formal hall stood open. Two enforcers stepped aside without a word. The Alpha stood at the far end of the long black-stone table, not seated. He did not need a throne to dominate the space.

For several long seconds the Alpha said nothing. His gaze moved slowly over his three sons, then settled on Levi. It lingered on the edge of the claiming mark visible above the collar of the too-large shirt..

"You were summoned," the Alpha said at last, his tone the complete opposite of the wave of rage oozing out of him, and that somehow made everyone in the room more terrified. "All three of you. And the payment."

Kai inclined his head. "Father."

The Alpha’s eyes did not leave Levi. "The entire east wing smells of a completed claim. The servants are already whispering. Visiting packs left last night carrying stories of an interrupted ceremony and an omega in heat. And this morning I am informed that one of my sons has sunk his teeth into the very creature given to us in place of my daughter." He finally looked at his sons. "Who did it?"

Silence stretched.

Aaron’s jaw was locked so tight a muscle jumped in his cheek. Kai remained still, waiting. Dexter took one step forward.

"I did," he said quietly.

The Alpha moved faster than his age suggested.

The open-handed slap cracked across Dexter’s face hard enough to snap his head to the side. The sound echoed off the high walls. Silver hair swung across Dexter’s cheek. A thin line of blood appeared at the corner of his mouth where a tooth had cut the inside of his lip. He did not lift a hand to the injury. He simply straightened and met his father’s eyes again, calm and unflinching.

"You marked a slave," the Alpha said, each word precise and venomous. "You marked the living reminder of your sister’s death and called it a mate bond. Do you have any idea what you have done to this house?"

Dexter swallowed the blood. "The Goddess—"

"Do not speak to me of the Goddess." The Alpha’s voice rose for the first time, not into a shout but into something colder and sharper. "The Goddess did not stand in the road and watch my daughter’s body pulled from the wreckage. The Goddess did not accept a trembling omega as equal payment for a dominant Luna who would have led one day. You did this. You looked at a creature that exists in this house only because his family killed your sister, and you decided he was worthy of your claim."

He turned his full attention on Levi. The force of that gaze made Levi’s knees threaten to buckle. He kept his eyes lowered, every instinct screaming at him to bare his throat and make himself smaller.

"You," the Alpha said. "Hill. Look at me."

Levi forced his head up. The Alpha’s eyes were the same dark shade as Kai’s, but older, harder, and filled with a grief that had long since turned into something uglier.

"You were brought here as collateral. A life for a life. Your family offered you because you were the least valuable thing they had left to give. You scrub floors, you prepare baths, and you are nothing but a slave." His lip curled. "And now one of my sons has placed a claiming mark on you as if you were a proper mate instead of a debt."

Aaron shifted, hoping to say something to ease the tension. "Father—"

"Be silent." The Alpha did not even look at him. "All three of you have embarrassed this pack. The ceremony was already a disaster. An unmated omega in full heat flooding the hall in front of allied Alphas. And instead of containing the problem, my heirs decided the problem was their destiny. Then one of them crept into the servant’s quarters in the middle of the night and completed a claim like a thief."

He walked slowly around the end of the table until he stood only a few paces from Levi. The scent of pure Alpha authority pressed down so hard that Levi’s vision narrowed at the edges. The fresh bond with Dexter pulsed in protest, a frightened, possessive thread that wanted to pull him toward the silver-haired prince and away from the older threat.

"I will not have my sons mated to a slave," the Alpha said, voice dropping back into lethal quiet. "I will not have the future of this pack tied to the same bloodline that took my child. Levi Hill is not a Luna, he is not a political match. He is not even a free omega. He is mine by right of blood debt. He belongs to this house the same way the furniture belongs to this house. And I will not allow a piece of property to wear the claim of one of my sons."

Kai spoke for the first time since entering, his voice carefully measured. "The bond is already formed. Removing it—"

"I know how bonds are broken." The Alpha’s gaze cut to his eldest. "Death of one party severs the connection cleanly. There will be no incomplete marks, no lingering pulls, no future arguments about destiny or the Goddess’s will." He looked back at Levi. "To make certain this insult ends here, and to ensure my children do not embarrass me any further, I will kill the omega."