Chapter 197: The Cost of Defiance
Vivian’s POV
She was coughing low, ragged sounds and moaning softly as she tried to drag herself up off the hard floor. When my steady footsteps drew nearer, she slowly turned her head in my direction. Her tangled hair shifted over her face, revealing the angry, dark imprint on her cheek the clear shadow of my hand burned deep into her skin like a cursed mark. It was swelling rapidly, already turning black and purple like a sick bloom spreading right beneath her teary eye. I would not be surprised at all if there was internal bleeding beneath the surface. The terrible sight did not stir a single ounce of pity in me.
"Too bad," my inner wolf muttered, her voice laced with savage indifference.
"If she even recovers from this, she won’t ever come back the exact same," my beast added, her voice dropping low and venomous.
"I-I’m sorry! I am... I..." she stammered out, shaking uncontrollably as she hunched forward, one hand pressed protectively over her lower abdomen. I caught the sharp, metallic tang of blood floating in the air. Her body was littered with tiny cuts thin red trails from the shattered glass wall and her hard fall had likely broken a few of her ribs.
The guy she had walked in with earlier pushed through the gawking crowd, his brown eyes wide with shock as he took in her broken state. He took a single step forward to help, but the second I let out a low, guttural snarl, he froze dead in his tracks. His head jerked violently toward me, his face turning pale as a ghost. Without giving her another single glance, he raised both hands in total surrender and melted right back into the crowd like a pathetic coward.
"Want to play completely submissive now? Fine," I said coldly, my voice cutting like a sharp razor against the heavily charged air. Deep power coiled beneath my skin, humming and sparking like a wild brushfire. My eyes had turned a piercing silver long ago, and I could feel the bright glow thrumming steadily in them.
"N-no! I said I’m sorr "
I moved so close to her trembling form that she had to tilt her head all the way back just to meet my glowing eyes, but I did not let her finish her sentence.
"Sit," I commanded, lacing my tone with pure Luna authority.
Her knees buckled instantly. She let out a strangled cry as her weakened body collapsed straight to the floor, curling tightly in on itself with her arms pinned tight to her sides.
"Stay," I said flatly, staring straight down at her.
She obeyed the command immediately, her back turning ramrod straight, her legs pulled up tight, frozen completely in place like a severely scolded pup. Her wide, terrified eyes flicked wildly from side to side while the absolute rest of her body did not move a single inch. Good. Let her remember this exact lesson for the rest of her life.
A familiar, powerful presence stepped up right beside me. Zahliver. His warm hand rested gently on my shoulder, grounding my wild energy. My eyes shifted slowly back to their natural color, the intense heat in my body slowly ebbing away as I felt the heavy weight of him right beside me. I let my tense shoulders drop slightly, the built-up tension bleeding out completely under his touch.
"Clean all of this up right now," Zahliver barked sharply to someone standing behind us.
There was an immediate flurry of panicked movement shuffling feet and brooms scraping hurriedly against the polished floor. He guided me a few steps off to the side so the piles of broken glass could be safely cleared away.
The background music resumed abruptly as the DJ picked up right where things had left off, but the overall mood in the room was far from normal now. People whispered in hushed, nervous voices, casting sneaky sideways glances at the girl who remained frozen like a statue on the floor. I never bothered to learn her name, and I certainly did not care to know it now.
Zahliver turned me around to face him directly. I braced myself, fully expecting some heavy judgment or maybe even deep disappointment... but all I saw in his dark gaze was genuine concern for me.
He wrapped his strong arms around me and, without a single word spoken, the whole world shifted around us. In a fast blink, we were standing upstairs again on the high balcony, completely away from all the floor chaos, the endless whispers, and the staring eyes.
"Are you alright, love?" he asked softly, his voice low as his broad hands skimmed up and down my back, pulling me tight into his comfortable warmth.
I looked up at his face, feeling a bit incredulous. "I just slapped a girl halfway across the grand room, tossed her straight through a solid wall of glass, and made her sit on the floor like an obedient mutt. And you are standing here asking if I am okay?"
"Yes," he said simply, looking right into my eyes. "Are you?"
I rolled my eyes at his simple response, but... I slowly nodded my head. "Yeah. I really am."
He studied my expression carefully, and I could easily see his very next question forming in his mind before he even opened his mouth to speak.
"You are not going to ask me why I did it?" I asked him, my brows raised high.
His lips parted slightly, but instead of giving a vocal answer, he reached his hand up and tugged playfully on my earlobe. That sudden gesture surprised a soft laugh right out of my chest.
"You heard the whole thing?" I asked, even though I already knew the obvious answer.
He nodded his head once.
"You were surprisingly calm when she was being blatantly disrespectful to you. You gave her soft warnings that she did not even deserve," he said quietly. "Then she crossed the ultimate line. She is exceptionally lucky that it was you who handled her... because if it had been me who stepped in " His deep voice darkened with a deadly threat that he did not even need to finish out loud.
I let out a long breath that I had not realized I was holding in. Slowly, I reached behind my head and unhooked my silver mask. His dark gaze sharpened instantly, watching me with quiet intensity as I peeled it off my face. I let out a soft sigh, then wrapped my arms tightly around his waist, leaning into the absolute solidity of his body.
He reached up gently and traced my lips with the warm pad of his thumb. "Pretty," he murmured softly, and I could not help but smile up at him.
Down below us, the heavy tension had finally begun to ease up a bit. The loud music had shifted into something much slower and smoother, with couples out on the floor dancing again, pretending like nothing dramatic had just happened. I noticed a few guests giving the frozen girl on the floor a very wide berth as they danced gracefully around her. She still looked utterly humiliated, curled up tight in the exact same frozen posture I had left her in. But even from this distance, I could easily feel it that bitter, festering anger she had not let go of inside. That was completely fine by me. I could easily let her stew in her own misery for now.
"How did your heavy conversation with all those visiting alphas go?" I asked as we turned and stepped over toward our private balcony table.
He let out a heavy sigh, scrubbing a large hand down his handsome face.
"They are far worse than I originally expected. Completely corrupt, insanely arrogant, and hopelessly stuck in outdated pack traditions," he muttered in annoyance. "In just two short hours, I had to personally remind half of them that not all dominant alphas die of peaceful old age."
"Did you get a chance to speak to Alpha Stone yet?"
He shook his head, his sharp jaw tensing up tightly. "He is definitely here tonight. I have caught a few quick sights of him moving around, but he has been actively avoiding me all night long. He probably knows I want to have a nice little chat with him."
His dark gaze drifted out over the crowd as he said it, something deeply calculating flickering in his blue eyes. As we reached our table, he pulled out a chair for me and sat down right beside me.
The rest of this long night was certainly not over yet. And neither was our quiet reckoning.