---- Chapter 9 No.9 Aria POV: | laughed, a sound completely devoid of humor. It was sharp and brittle, like breaking glass. "You'll be my mate?" | repeated, my voice laced with disbelief and scorn. "After all this? After you conspired to humiliate me in front of every pack on the continent? Do you honestly believe | would ever allow you to Mark me now, Kaelen?" | pointed a trembling finger at the wreckage of the projection screen. "Was that you? Was that your grand plan to punish me for slapping your precious Lyra?" A look of genuine shock, followed by a flicker of deep, undeniable pain, crossed his face. For the first time, he looked truly wounded. "No," he said, his voice hoarse. "l would never... Aria, | would never do that to you." "Liar!" | screamed, the last of my composure shattering. "You're the only one with the technical skill to bypass my father's security protocols. You're the only one who can slip past the wards on my suite to plant cameras. It had to be you! You did it for her!" ---- My emotions, held in check for so long, finally exploded. | lunged forward and slapped him, hard, across the face. The sting in my palm was a small, satisfying release. Alpha Alistair stepped between us, his face a thunderous mask. He pinned Kaelen with the full force of his Alpha Command. "Kaelen. | took you in. | trained you. | treated you like a son. Look me in the eye and tell me you did not do this vile thing." Under the weight of the Command, Kaelen met my father's gaze. His posture was unbowed, his voice steady despite the immense pressure. "| did not do it, Alpha," he stated clearly. "Humiliating the future Luna is humiliating the future Alpha. It would be an act of self-sabotage. It makes no logical sense." He was right. It didn't. But my heart was too broken to listen to logic. Kaelen tore his eyes from my father and fixed them on me, a desperate, pleading intensity in their depths. "I will prove it. Give me a terminal. | can trace the signal. | swear on the Moon Goddess, Aria, | will find whoever did this and | will rip them apart with my bare hands." His raw, violent promise hung in the air. For a fleeting second, | saw the powerful, protective Alpha he was supposed to be. But it was too little, too late. The trust between us had been ground to dust. +