Claimed by the scarred Alpha

SÉVERINE

"But what?"

I set the fork down with all the control I had in me. "You protest a lot for a creature who is supposed to be my undying slave. So what is the ’but’ you are clearly holding back?"

Shadows gathered around him. The cat form dissolved into something taller. More substantial. He stood beside the table in his human shape with blue eyes that looked even more unsettling when set in a face that could pass for mortal if you didn’t look too close.

"I do not want to hurt you."

A laugh bubbled up from my chest. The sound came out sharp and bitter. "You are my slave. Of course, you do not want to hurt me. Our contract ensures you cannot wish me harm even if you wanted to."

"That is not what I meant."

"Then be clearer." I met his stare without flinching. "Because right now, you sound like you are questioning my judgment. And we both know how well that works out for familiars who forget their place."

He moved closer. His hand reached for mine, where it rested on the table. His fingers were cool against my skin when he lifted my palm and studied the lines there like they held answers I’d been too blind to see.

"What if it does not work out?"

I jerked my hand away. The movement sent my coffee cup rattling in its saucer. "And why would that be? I’ve thought this through. Étienne will be with her when it happens. He will not be there for me early since he will be too busy cuddling with that bitch. We do not have a mate bond, so the guilt will hit harder. No divine certainty to cushion the blow. It will feed on his issues and he will start to despise that stupid bond with that girl. He would want to make it right by me. I will have the opportunity to push our marriage, which he is starting to falter on even deeper on him. And of course, push him to sever that bond and focus on his revenge like he was supposed to from the beginning."

My familiar held my gaze. His expression carried something that looked almost like pity. "Because your fate with him is still purple threaded. It is still imbalanced and not aligned the way you need it to be."

"Buzz off."

"I only worry for you, Mistress."

Heat crawled up my throat. Anger mixed with fear and also mixed with the horrible certainty that he was right and I was running out of time to fix what the goddess had apparently decided to break.

"We can just kill the girl, you know." His voice dropped lower. Reasonable in a way that made the suggestion sound almost sane. "Use Prim to finish the job. Eliminate the threat she poses and be done with it. Clean, simple and permanent."

"She is not a threat to me."

My familiar’s composure cracked. His eyes flashed with something wild and desperate. "Yes she is. The threads connecting you two are pitch black. You two are obstacles to the other’s happiness and destiny. It is worse that the thread that ties her and Étienne is red. Vibrant red like fresh blood. Like fate has already decided how this story ends and you are just a footnote in someone else’s romance."

Magic surged through my veins before I’d consciously decided to use it. My hand rose. Power responded to rage and fear in equal measure. My familiar’s body flew backward. His spine hit the far wall hard enough to crack the plaster. My magic closed around his throat like invisible fingers squeezing the air from his lungs.

He did not fight. Neither did he struggle against the hold because it would never really hurt him no matter how hard I pushed. Instead he smiled. The expression looked wrong on a face that was supposed to be choking. He looked amused and very proud of me.

"You are learning unseen hands quickly."

I tightened my grip. Not enough to truly hurt him, but enough to make my point clear. "I have a talented familiar. But he has to start watching his tongue. Learn when to shut up and obey instead of questioning every decision I make."

"I question your decisions because I want what is best for you, Mistress." The words came out tight with restraint, though his voice never lost its clarity. "And I know what truly frightens you. It is not Margaux." His tail curled closer around himself. "It is Étienne."

I said nothing.

"You fear that if she is removed from the equation, you will lose him too. That as long as Margaux lives, as long as there is still conflict between them, he remains tethered to you somehow. Through duty. Through hatred. Through unfinished business." His eyes held mine without wavering. "But if she dies, then eventually the anger dies with her. And when that happens..." He exhaled softly. "What reason does he have left to stay by your side?"

My magic faltered. The invisible hand around his throat loosened enough.

"But is that not enough clarity that you and he will not work?" He straightened against the wall but made no move to approach me again. "If her death would drive him away, if her presence makes you doubt, plot, and scheme, then you have already lost him. You are just too stubborn to admit it."

Footsteps echoed in the hallway outside. Distant but approaching with the kind of measured pace that suggested someone who knew exactly where they were going.

My familiar’s head tilted slightly. "Well... will you look at that? Your grandfather is here."

Then he vanished. One moment, he stood against the cracked wall, and the next, the space was empty except for damaged plaster and the faint scent of magic that would fade before anyone thought to notice it.

I smoothed my dress with hands that wanted to shake. I forced my breathing to even out. I turned my attention back to my plate and picked up my fork like I’d been focused on eating this entire time. Like I had not just been threatening my familiar with magic that would do him no harm, even if I lost control.

The dining room door opened. The same Omega from before stepped inside with my grandfather behind her. Her expression carried apology mixed with uncertainty about whether she’d made the right call letting him in.

"I apologize, Luna, but your grandfather was looking for you."

I stood and arranged my face into something that might pass for pleasant surprise. "Hello, Grandfather."

He smiled. The expression reached his eyes in a way that made my stomach drop because I knew that look. I’d seen it before when he’d caught me doing something I shouldn’t have been doing and was deciding how severe the punishment should be.

I was used to that face.

"Shall I serve you, Elder?" The Omega hovered near the doorway.

"No." He waved her away without looking at her. "Just leave us."

She bowed and retreated. The door clicked shut behind her with a sound that felt far too final.

My grandfather moved to the chair beside mine and gestured for me to sit. I lowered myself back into my seat and kept my hands folded in my lap where he could not see them tremble.

"It is a surprise to see you here, Grandfather."

He settled into his chair with the kind of careful control that came from joints that did not move as easily as they used to. "Is that so?"

I nodded and waited for him to explain what had brought him to the estate. What had prompted a visit when he usually preferred to summon me to him rather than making the trip himself?

"There has been word going around." He folded his hands on the table in front of him. "That there could be a magic user within these walls. Someone rogue is attacking members of this pack with witchcraft."

My throat went dry. I reached for my coffee and took a sip to buy myself time to respond. The liquid had gone completely cold. It tasted bitter on my tongue.

"It is vile." I set the cup down with exaggerated care. "But Theodore will figure it out. He always does. He is thorough when it comes to protecting this pack."

My grandfather’s eyes stayed locked on my face. He did not blink. He did not look away. He just studied me with the kind of intensity that had always made me feel like he could see straight through whatever mask I was wearing to the truth underneath.

"C’mon... We are the only ones here."

The words landed like stones dropped into still water. Ripples spread outward , and the implications of those words multiplied.

"It is you, is it not?"

I forced myself to meet his stare without flinching. "What would make you think that?"

His hand came down on the table hard enough to make the silverware jump. The sound cracked through the quiet room like a whip.

"Do not fucking play games with me, granddaughter." His voice rose, and I heard anger bleeding through the careful control he usually maintained. "Who else would it be? You think I am too old to notice patterns? To see you use your vile magic in ways it should not be, or who happens to be the victim of that magic two times now?"

He stood. The chair scraped backward across the hardwood. He loomed over me with fury written across every line of his face.

"Are you insane?"