Chapter 346
Shards of bone and ceramic exploded outward. A fragment skittered across the Persian rug and stopped inches from the toe of my blue dress.
Dallas moved instantly. He didn’t shift, but the aura of the Alpha King slammed into the room like a physical blow, draining the oxygen from the air.
“That,” Dallas said, his voice dropping to a whisper far more terrifying than any shout, “was a threat to my Luna. Do it again, Gigi, and I will strip you of your title. I will remove your access to the accounts, dismiss your staff, and leave you in this rotting house with nothing but your precious bloodline to keep you warm. You will be a prisoner in your own legacy.”
Silence descended, thick and suffocating. Gigi stood panting, her chest heaving. For a moment, I thought she would attack him. But then the rage in her eyes vanished, replaced by something far more unsettling: calculation.
She smoothed the front of her dress, her mask of icy indifference sliding back into place.
“You are emotional, Dallas,” she said dismissively, as though he hadn’t just threatened to dismantle her life. “Blinded by the bond. It makes you irrational.”
She turned her gaze to me — truly looked at me for the first time since we had arrived. There was no heat in her stare now, only a clinical, dissecting evaluation.
“Leave us,” she commanded.
“No,” Dallas barked immediately. “I am not leaving her with you.”
“If she is to be Luna,” Gigi said softly, her voice dripping with false sweetness, “surely she can handle a conversation with an old woman? Or is she truly so fragile that she needs her Alpha to hold her hand while she breathes?”
Dallas opened his mouth to refuse, his body rigid with the need to protect. But I squeezed his hand.
The insult stung — but it also woke something inside me. I looked at the shattered goblet on the floor, then at the woman who wanted to erase my existence. If I hid behind Dallas now, I would be hiding forever. I would prove her right.
“Dallas,” I said, my voice steady despite the trembling in my knees.
He looked down at me, his grey eyes storming with worry. I saw the warning in his expression, the tension in his jaw. He wanted to refuse, to drag me from this room and never look back.
“I have to do this,” I said quietly, meeting his gaze. “As your Luna. I need to stand on my own two feet.”
He searched my face for any sign of hesitation. Finding none, he let out a frustrated breath, his jaw clenching tight. He hated every second of this — every instinct in him was screaming to get me out of that room.
“Fine,” he growled, fixing his grandmother with a lethal stare. “Five minutes.”