Chapter 577 Claire VS Addison

Chapter 577: Chapter 577 Claire VS Addison

And if the Royal Family, the pillar that held the entire kingdom together, couldn’t present a united front, unrest would spread like wildfire across every territory.

The kingdom’s enemies wouldn’t even need to attack.

They would simply sit back and watch it tear itself apart from within.

Addison’s gaze hardened.

Claire had calculated every step.

That was precisely why she’d chosen this moment, in front of every minister, Alpha, and elder, to reveal her lineage.

She wasn’t introducing herself.

She was wrapping herself in the Royal Family’s protection, daring anyone, especially Addison, to make a move against her.

Although Claire’s lineage had been uncovered long ago, the Alpha King had immediately placed a gag order on the matter, forbidding anyone from spreading the truth. As a result, only those who had personally witnessed his younger brother reveal Claire’s identity knew of her true heritage, while everyone else remained completely in the dark.

That was precisely why the Alpha King’s brother had deliberately brought Claire before the council and later presented her during the royal banquet. He wanted every influential Alpha, elder, and minister in attendance to see her with their own eyes and recognize the bloodline she carried.

Claire did not disappoint her father in the slightest. The two moved with the same purpose, thinking several steps ahead, each action perfectly complementing the other’s. It was clear they were of one mind, and together they were quietly shifting the balance of power inside the kingdom.

Meanwhile, Mila could only grit her teeth.

In what should have been her moment, she had instead been reduced to nothing more than the backdrop, a convenient stepping stone Claire had effortlessly used to elevate herself before the kingdom’s most powerful figures. The realization burned like acid in her chest.

When Mila instinctively looked toward Addison, she caught the faintest glint in her cousin’s eyes before it disappeared as though it had never existed.

Anyone else would have missed it.

But Mila wouldn’t.

They had grown up together. Even if Addison had lost her memories, the habits engraved into her body had never truly vanished. That fleeting gleam, the subtle tightening around her eyes, the almost imperceptible lift of her chin, those were unmistakable signs. Addison had accepted Claire’s challenge.

Silently.

Without uttering a single word.

Mila knew Addison well enough to understand that she would never allow such a direct provocation to go unanswered.

Yet instead of reassuring her, that realization only made the bitterness inside Mila deepen.

Because no matter which side emerged victorious, she would merely become collateral damage, another pawn crushed beneath two women fighting the same political war which was the throne.

Claire wanted it, but Addison would not surrender it.

And if Mila was honest with herself... she coveted it as well.

That was the cruelest part of all.

She wasn’t merely watching two rivals clash over the crown.

She was watching her own ambitions slowly disappear beneath the shadows of two women whose brilliance and backing threatened to leave her as nothing more than an afterthought.

And Mila was right.

But did Claire truly believe that everything Addison had suffered in the Midnight River Pack was some shameful secret she desperately wanted buried?

How laughable.

Addison had endured every kind of humiliation imaginable during her years there. She had been mocked, isolated, betrayed, and dragged through the mud by countless wolves who wanted nothing more than to see her break. They schemed against her openly, waiting for the day she would finally fall.

Did Claire honestly think those scars were enough to shake her?

Of course, in the wrong hands, that past could become a dangerous weapon. Rumors and half-truths always were. But Addison hadn’t risen to become Zion’s Luna by being na?ve.

She had learned, through blood and bitter experience, how to wage war without ever drawing a blade.

Every negotiation with the neighboring Alpha Packs had been its own battlefield. They looked down on her because she was a woman. They mocked her because she was wolfless. They assumed she was nothing more than a decorative Luna with no authority of her own.

Every meeting began with contempt. ℯℯ𝘭.

Every conversation was laced with hidden daggers.

And every single time, Addison answered with a smile just sharp enough to conceal the knives hidden beneath her own words. She dismantled her opponents piece by piece, exposing their weaknesses while never once losing her composure. By the time the negotiations ended, the same Alphas who had entered the room looking down on her were forced to acknowledge her ability.

The respect she earned was never handed to her.

She bled for every ounce of it.

Among the guests, several Alphas from the eastern territories had already recognized her the moment she entered the hall.

Yet not one of them spoke.

Not because they doubted her identity, but because they knew better.

They had once crossed Addison themselves. They had experienced firsthand just how merciless she could be when cornered, how she could smile while verbally stripping someone of their dignity without ever raising her voice. The last thing they wanted was to remind her of their past offenses and invite her attention back to them.

The moment Claire began speaking, those veteran Alphas exchanged knowing glances as they thought.

’Here it comes...’

Instead of intervening, they simply lifted their wine glasses, swirling the crimson liquid lazily without taking a sip. Leaning comfortably against their chairs, they watched with unconcealed amusement, waiting for the inevitable.

They weren’t expecting a fight.

They were waiting for Claire to walk straight into her own execution.

Not a physical one —

A political one.

After all, they had once been on the receiving end of Addison’s razor-sharp tongue themselves. They had learned long ago that confronting her head-on was the fastest way to destroy their own reputation.

After hearing Addison speak during the council meeting and learning of her true lineage, those eastern Alphas became even more convinced that siding with her back when she was merely the Luna of the Midnight River Pack had been one of the wisest decisions they had ever made.

Now that she stood before them as the kingdom’s princess, their loyalty had only grown stronger.

Exposing Addison’s past?

The thought never even crossed their minds.

Unlike Claire, they understood that the woman standing before them had never been defined by the humiliation she endured.

She had been forged by it.

And anyone foolish enough to use that past against her would soon discover that they were handing Addison the perfect opportunity to tear them apart with their own words.

And so, Addison smiled gently, as though Claire’s open provocation hadn’t stirred even the slightest ripple within her. "You flatter me far too much. I never forget old grudges, and I certainly don’t remember us ever being close. If anything, the hatred between us ran as deep as the lake behind this palace..." she said, the corners of her lips curling into a slow, knowing smile.

She held Claire’s gaze without blinking, watching every crack in her carefully crafted composure. The warmth drained from Claire’s face, leaving it deathly pale before a sickly shade of green flickered across her expression.

A flash of naked anger burned in her eyes, sharp and vicious, but it vanished just as quickly as she forced those emotions back behind her polished smile. For a brief moment, however, the mask had slipped, and Addison had seen exactly what she wanted to see.

Claire gathered herself with remarkable speed. The flicker of panic disappeared as she let out a soft, airy laugh, her smile returning as though nothing had happened.

"Cousin, you jest..."

She deliberately brushed off Addison’s blunt reminder of their shared past, hoping everyone at the table would dismiss it as nothing more than a joke.

But now, Addison had silently made one thing painfully clear: she no longer cared if Claire exposed her past. She wouldn’t flinch, wouldn’t deny it, and certainly wouldn’t bend. In a single move, she stripped Claire of the very weapon she had been clutching all this time. The threat had become meaningless.

Claire understood exactly what Addison had done.

She bit the inside of her cheek so hard she nearly tasted blood, her frustration simmering beneath her composed expression. She had expected Addison to protect her reputation at all costs. After all, wouldn’t revealing such a past tarnish Addison’s image in the eyes of her subjects?

Yet Addison simply didn’t care.

What Claire couldn’t comprehend was that Addison had already warned her. If Claire insisted on dragging the past into the open, Addison had every intention of doing the same. And unlike Addison’s past, Claire’s own hands were far from clean.

She had schemed relentlessly to steal Addison’s rightful position as the Luna of the Midnight River Pack, manipulating everyone she could, while Zion himself could testify to every dirty move she had made.

The moment Addison spoke the truth, with Zion backing every word, Claire would be the one backed into a corner.