HAZEL
I stared at the door long after Lysander left. The silence felt thick enough to choke on.
Mother and Grandmother filed back in. The air shifted with their presence, heavier somehow. More suffocating.
"What did you talk about?" Mother asked.
The words sat on my tongue, bitter and sharp. Your chosen savior is hopelessly in love with Fia. I could already see it so clearly—the shock they’d have on their faces, the way Grandmother’s carefully laid plans would crack down the middle.
But I swallowed it down.
"What did you promise the Lily of the Valley for their help?" I asked instead.
Grandmother’s expression went flat. "Forget about that."
She walked to the bedside table and picked up Lysander’s card. The gold lettering caught the light as she turned it over in her fingers.
"What you should do right now is obsess over that weird, twitchy little man and the marriage that needs to happen quickly." She set the card back down with a soft click. "The price was not cheap at all."
I reached out and grabbed her hand. Her skin felt papery thin under my grip.
"I do not appreciate being kept in the dark."
She tried to pull away. But I only held on tighter.
"I’m already a fucking Omega. Blind reliance will not just cut it." My voice came out steadier than I felt. "Lysander told me enough. But either he doesn’t know much himself or that’s as much as he wants to disclose." I loosened my grip slightly. "Why would Lily of the Valley sacrifice their own heir for measly healers? It makes no sense."
Grandmother smacked her red lips together. The sound was wet and deliberate.
"It is best you stay in the dark. Trust me, it is for the best."
My teeth ground together. The urge to argue burned through me like acid, but I forced myself to stay quiet. I released her hand and settled back against the pillows. The ceiling stared down at me, blank and white and endless.
"The good thing to come out of this is the fact I will become a Luna regardless. Tha fact that what I was born with will now be given to be honorarily still bums me. But I will make due." The words tasted strange in my mouth. Like I was trying to convince myself more than them. "I will be affiliated to an even stronger pack. So maybe I’ll just close my eyes this one time."
Grandmother smiled. "Smart."
I tilted my head to look at her. "But if the bitch who did this to me thinks this is done and dandy, I will show her I am still her biggest threat. I’m grateful for your help. But you need to know off the bat that I am not quite done with it."
Mother’s footsteps came fast. She appeared at my bedside, her face twisted with something between fury and fear.
"Are you fucking stupid, Hazel?" Her voice cracked. "Fia just decimated you and it took a lot to ensure you didn’t get killed, which if you didn’t know before, I will tell you now. That was her intention. Revenge for what I did to her mother."
The room went still.
I turned my head slowly to look at her. "What does that mean? What did you do?"
Mother’s face drained of color. "Forget it."
"What did you—"
"Forget it." She spun toward Grandmother. "You really should knock some sense into her, Mother. It’s like I have failed completely in that regard."
Grandmother waved a dismissive hand then turned to face me.
"I understand completely what that can feel like." She said. "But you need not worry about the girl."
Mother’s eyes went wide. "What? What does that mean, Mother?"
"Hazel is not the only one who has it out for the bitch. She dared to walk over me." Grandmother’s voice went cold and flat. Dead in a way that made my skin prickle. "Not to mention her face." She paused. "It reminds me of that evil, conniving woman. It was like the universe was working overtime against her, making our paths cross."
Something shifted in my chest. A spark of interest I couldn’t quite name. The fact that Pauline was against that bitch too brought me inner peace.
"Mother, she is now Skollrend and that Alpha of hers loves her like it’s breathing." Mother’s words came out rushed and desperate. "If she is harmed, harm will come to us all."
"I am not fucking stupid." Grandmother’s tone could have cut glass. "It will happen in Skollrend territory. Accidents happen all the time after all." She tilted her head, thoughtful. "She has a sentinel with her. He will probably survive. She will not. That’ll give us plausible deniability."
The words hung in the air like smoke.
Mother grabbed Grandmother’s arm. "Mother, what the hell are you talking about? That is insane. The girl is out of our hair now and will never bother us again. No need to play fucking games."
"Shut up."
The command cracked through the room. Mother flinched.
Grandmother continued, voice steady and certain. "This isn’t just about pride. Something about that girl just rubs me wrong." She turned to look at Mother fully. "You might not remember. But she looks exactly like that Omega whore your father cheated on me with before I took care of her."
A smile pulled at my lips before I could stop it. "You’ll kill her?"
Grandmother met my eyes. "I will definitely try. I really don’t care if she survives or not. But I trust she will get the message regardless. The universe speaks to us all."
The honesty of it was almost beautiful.
"You should know Lysander seems to be weirdly fixated on Fia." The words slipped out easy now as I tested the waters and watched.
"Oh I noticed." Grandmother’s expression didn’t change. "Another reason why I have to take the girl out. I know that look and I know the best time to take care of it is before it takes root."
Pride bloomed warm in my chest. It spread through me like heat, chasing away the cold that had settled in my bones since I woke up powerless. This was what family looked like. This was what protection meant.
Grandmother saw the threat and she was willing to eliminate it.
For me.
Because I mattered.
Because despite everything, despite losing my wolf and my rank and a future I wanted, I was still worth protecting.
I let my smile widen. Let it show teeth.
Fia thought she’d won.
She had no idea what was coming.
The thought settled in my mind like a promise. Like a vow.
I hoped she didn’t survive whatever Grandmother had planned. I hoped whatever accident befell her in Skollrend was slow, painful and terrifying.
I hoped she felt every second of it. I hoped she understood, in those final moments, that this was what happened to tongues that rose against me, and to those who tried to rise above their station.
It was what needed to be when you forgot where you came from.
When you forgot who really held the power.
Mother was still arguing with Grandmother, voice high and frantic. The words washed over me like static. I stopped listening. It didn’t matter what Mother thought. She’d always been too soft. Too worried about consequences, politics and keeping a semblance of peace even when teeth was involved.
Grandmother understood. Grandmother knew that sometimes you had to get your hands dirty. That sometimes mercy was just weakness in a barely covered disguise.
I looked down at my hands. They were pale against the white sheets. Delicate. Omega hands now, without the strength of my wolf behind them.
But I didn’t need strength.
I had Grandmother.
I had Lysander, whether he knew it yet or not.
I had a plan forming in the back of my mind, pieces clicking together like a puzzle I’d been working on my whole life.
Fia could have her Alpha. Her little win. Her sentinel. Her new pack and her new rank and her new life.
It wouldn’t save her.
Nothing would save her.