Chapter 358
While I tried to process this new threat, Alpha Marcus Hyde seemed to find a sudden, desperate courage in the silence. He shifted in his seat, the wood creaking under his weight. The sour stench of his anxiety spiked, rolling off him in waves that made my nose wrinkle. He looked like a cornered rat deciding to bite the cat.
“Matriarch,” Marcus began, his voice gaining a false bravado. He gestured loosely with his wine glass, sloshing the dark red liquid against the crystal rim. “You speak of cleansing the house, of war. But surely you see the irony? You wish to project strength to the other packs, yet you allow… this… to sit at your right hand.”
His eyes landed on me, filled with a mixture of loathing and superiority. “A wolfless girl as the mate of the Alpha King? It sends a signal of weakness, Gigi. The other Alphas will laugh at us. They will see a broken lineage.”
Beside me, Dallas stiffened. A low, dangerous growl vibrated in his chest — the kind that usually promised violence. I could feel the tension radiating from him like a storm barely contained. My own heart hammered against my ribs, but I forced myself to stay still, trusting him to hold back.
Gigi didn’t even look up from her plate. She picked up a linen napkin and dabbed the corner of her mouth with deliberate, agonizing slowness. When she finally raised her eyes to Marcus, they were devoid of humanity.
“Weakness,” she repeated, tasting the word as if it were spoiled meat. “You dare speak to me of weakness, Marcus?”
“I only speak for the good of the—”
“Silence.” It wasn’t a shout; it was a command that seemed to drop the temperature in the room by ten degrees. “You produced a son who sold our secrets to Rogues. A son who tortured innocents and brought ruin to your doorstep. My grandson, on the other hand, brought home a survivor who walked through fire to save him.”
She leaned forward, her amber eyes glowing faintly. “My grandson brought a future Luna home. Your son brought ruin. Tell me, Marcus — which is the greater weakness?”
Marcus’s face flushed a mottled purple. He sputtered, his ego bruising under the weight of her logic. “Braydon… Braydon was a mistake. A lapse in judgment! But the Hyde bloodline is pure! We have never tainted our inner circle with—”
“With what? Integrity?” Gigi cut him off with a scoff that sounded like a blade being sharpened. She set her silverware down with a sharp clink. “Do not lie to me. My spies in Blackwood are thorough. You knew.”
The room went deathly still. Even the servants in the shadows seemed to hold their breath.
“You knew Braydon was trading silver with Rogues,” Gigi continued, her voice dropping to a lethal whisper. “And when the accounts didn’t add up, you didn’t stop him. You dipped into the Hyde treasury to cover his tracks. You embezzled from your own pack to hide a crime that warrants execution by the Council of Alphas.”
Marcus’s mouth opened and closed, no sound coming out. He looked as though he had been struck by lightning.