Chosen as the Cursed Alpha's Seventh Bride

Author’s POV

A small syringe pressed cold against Linda’s forehead. Sebastian’s voice came out flat, stripped of anything human. "You thought that bottle was acid? If it had been, I’d have been doing you a kindness. And I’m not feeling kind."

He leaned in close enough that she could smell the cedar and mint rolling off him, close enough that his Alpha presence pressed down on her like a hand on the back of her neck. His breath ghosted past her ear.

"I won’t kill you," he said softly. "That’s too quick. Too easy. I’m going to make what’s left of your life a living hell."

Then he straightened, turned, and walked out. The enforcers followed in perfect formation, the door clicking shut behind them. Somehow that quiet click was worse than any scream.

The suite went dead silent.

Then Linda came back to herself, and the screaming started.

"Mom! My face—is it gone? Am I—" Her hands flew up, trembling, slapping at her own cheeks. "Do I look like a monster? Tell me!"

She was spiraling. Dorothy caught her wrists and forced them down. "Stop it. Your face is fine. It was water. Just water."

"Water?" Linda’s voice cracked. She touched her cheek again, slower, feeling the smooth, unbroken skin. "But he said—"

"He lied. He wanted us to feel it." Dorothy’s voice shook. "To think we were about to lose everything."

Linda folded forward, sobbing until her whole body shook. Dorothy pulled her in, and they stayed there on the cold marble, clinging to each other.

Not once did either of them think of Emilia. No guilt crept in under the fear.

Only terror.

When they stumbled through the front door hours later, Henry took one look at his wife’s shredded back and went pale. "What the hell happened to you?"

Dorothy flinched. "Henry, we have to leave. Tonight. Pack what we can and get out of Silverlake before—"

"Leave?" He looked between them, lost. "Why would we leave?"

"Because Sebastian Simons is going to destroy us." Her voice broke. "He said he’d make our lives hell, and he meant every word. If we stay, we’re dead. We have to give up the pack, the company, all of it—"

"Give up the pack?" Henry’s face hardened. "That’s my life’s work. Decades of it. And you want me to walk away from it—" He stopped. "Why? Why would Sebastian Simons come after us at all? We’ve never touched him. We’re not even in his territory."

Dorothy and Linda exchanged a look. The kind that said everything without a word.

Henry saw it. His stomach dropped. "What did you do?"

Silence.

"What did you do?"

Dorothy’s face crumpled. "We couldn’t just let it go. After what that little witch did—wrecking our home, humiliating us in front of everyone—she had to learn her place."

"Learn her—" Henry’s voice failed him. His face went from confused to sick in the space of a breath. "You went after Emilia. You took her."

"We didn’t kidnap her," Linda snapped, already defensive. "We just wanted to scare her. Make her understand she couldn’t treat us like that."

"Scare her." Henry’s laugh came out strangled. "You took the Luna of Silver Moon. You put your hands on Sebastian Simons’ mate. And it never once crossed your minds there’d be a price?"

"We didn’t think he’d care!" Dorothy shouted. "The whole city knows he hates her. He walked out of his own house to get away from her. We thought—"

"You thought wrong." Henry dropped onto the sofa, head in his hands. "That man could bury this pack with a single phone call. And not one Alpha in this city would lift a finger to stop him."

"Which is why we run," Dorothy pressed. "Now. Before he makes his next move. We take Linda and disappear. Start over somewhere far from here—"

"And hand him everything I’ve built?" Henry’s head came up, jaw set. "No. I’m not running."

"Henry—"

"I said no." He rose to his feet. "The Frostridge Pack is my legacy. I won’t throw it away because the two of you couldn’t keep your hands to yourselves."

"Then what do we do?" Linda’s voice climbed, shrill. "Sit here and wait for him to come back and finish us?"

Henry went quiet a long moment. Then he let out a slow breath, and something calculating slid into his eyes.

"We leave. Not for good." He was already working it through. "I’ll liquidate what I can, move the assets into cash. Three days, maybe four. Then I get you both out of the city, and we lie low until this blows over."

"Blows over?" Dorothy stared at him. "Henry, you weren’t there. You didn’t see his face. This isn’t going to blow over."

"It will if he can’t find you." Henry’s tone turned cold, practical. "I’ll send you somewhere he won’t think to look. Somewhere outside his territory. And when enough time passes, when he’s moved on to other things, you’ll come back."

"And if he hasn’t moved on?" Linda whispered.

Henry met her eyes. For the first time, she saw something that looked like genuine fear in her father’s face.

"Then you stay gone," he said quietly. "For good."