The heavy oak double doors of the Silvermoon boardroom swung open with a resounding thud that silenced every heartbeat in the room.
Victoria, standing by the head of the table, gasped audibly, her hand flying to her mouth in a performance of choreographed shock.
Her cloying, artificial high-born pheromones spiked in the air, a scent Sienna once found intimidating but now found merely pathetic.
"Sienna?" Victoria's voice wavered with fake concern. "What are you doing with the Bloodfang Pack? Did Alpha Lucian… did he do something to you?"
At the head of the table, Alpha Silas, the Lycan King, snapped his head up.
His amber eyes, usually as cold as mountain ice, contracted into lethal slits. A storm of shock and homicidal fury flickered across his rugged features.
Sienna didn't look like the broken Omega they had exiled.
Gone were the drab, oversized clothes of a servant.
She was draped in a tailored, blood-red power suit that hugged her curves like armor.
Her hair was pulled back in a sleek, defiant style.
But it was her scent that truly sent a shockwave through the room.
The sweet, honey-like fragrance that once belonged solely to Silas was now brazenly tangled with the thick, metallic, and aggressive scent of a rival Alpha.
Inside Silas's soul, the Mate Bond shrieked.
His inner wolf, a gargantuan beast of pure dominance, let out a deafening roar that threatened to shatter his ribs.
He wanted to leap across the table, tear the throat out of every Bloodfang guard, and drag her back into his shadows.
Sienna felt the bond pulling at her, but she had spent three days in hell learning how to build a wall of ice around her heart.
She severed the Mind-link, refusing to hear the growls of his soul. With the grace of a queen, she pulled out a chair and sat down directly across from the King.
"Alpha Silas. You look surprised," Sienna said, her voice smooth and devoid of the submissive tremor that had defined her for five years. "Water flows to the lowest point, and people move to where they are valued. My move to Bloodfang is simply a career change. Alpha Lucian has sent me as his Emissary to sign the border treaty. Where is the contract?"
Victoria, eager to reclaim her status, reached for the documents to hand them over.
But Silas's hand shot out, pinning the papers to the table with a force that made the wood groan. His gaze remained locked on Sienna, burning with a possessive heat.
Sienna didn't flinch. She stood up, her eyes like polished obsidian. "If Silvermoon is no longer interested in cooperation, the Bloodfang Pack has no reason to linger. We shall take our leave."
"Stand down!" Silas's voice boomed, a raw, gutteral command.
He released his Lycan Aura—a suffocating wave of pure power designed to bring any Omega to their knees.
The pressure hit Sienna like a physical blow.
Her bones ached, and her lungs felt as if they were being crushed. But she bit her lip until she tasted copper, standing tall against the tide of his dominance. She would not bow. Never again.
Victoria sneered from the sidelines, sensing her opportunity. "Sienna, you're just a low-level Omega. First, you faked being a secretary, and now you're playing at being an Emissary? Even if you trick us into a deal, what could a reject like you possibly gain?"
Silas looked down at Sienna, his lips curling into a cruel, arrogant smirk. "Quite the performance, Sienna. If you wanted to return to my protection so badly, you didn't need these petty theatrics. Kneel. Beg my forgiveness, and I might be merciful enough to let you back into the pack."
Victoria's knuckles turned white as she watched Silas. The jealousy in her eyes was a venomous green.
Sienna met Silas's gaze, a chilling, mocking smile touching her lips.
The Lycan King thinks his protection is still a gift I crave, she thought. Aloud, she said, "Am I supposed to thank you for your 'mercy,' Alpha? I am afraid you misunderstand. I am never coming back to Silvermoon."
Silas's face turned a bruised shade of purple.
The air around him began to frost. "Sienna, do not test my patience!"
"If you won't talk business, then move," Sienna challenged.
Suddenly, a low, bone-chilling growl echoed from the hallway.
A violent, bloodthirsty Alpha aura tore through the Silvermoon defenses like a hot knife through butter.
Alpha Lucian of the Bloodfang Pack strode in, his presence a dark stain on the pristine room.
Before Silas could react, Lucian stepped behind Sienna and wrapped a possessive arm around her waist, pulling her flush against his chest.
He leaned down, burying his face in her neck to inhale her scent, deliberately marking her with his pheromones in front of her true mate.
"Silas," Lucian rumbled, his fangs glinting as he looked at the Lycan King, whose eyes had turned a homicidal scarlet. "Let me introduce you to my new, high-salaried Chief Secretary... Sienna."