Alpha Helios's entrance was silent but devastating. The temperature in the dining hall seemed to drop, the heavy air thick with the dominant, untamed aura of the Lycan Alpha. He glided into the room, his golden eyes sweeping the table before locking instantly onto Hera, who was just walking in behind Princess Sylvia.
But Alpha Zack didn't even register Helios's presence. His gaze was entirely paralyzed by the woman standing just a step ahead of the Lycan Alpha-Princess Isadora.
She wore a gown the color of liquid midnight, her long, wavy silver hair cascading down her shoulders, catching the candlelight with every deliberate step she took. The curls framing her face shifted slightly as she looked around the room, and Zack felt a dangerous, violent urge in his chest; sudden, suffocating need to reach out, to tug those silver strands behind her ear just to see if she would bleed vulnerability.
Isadora stopped right across from Zack. She caught him staring. Instead of looking away or bowing her head, her lips curved into a sharp, beautiful smile that didn't reach her eyes. It was a look of pure, amused superiority.
"Alpha Zack," Helios's deep, resonant voice finally broke the silence, cutting through Zack's daze like a blade. Helios pulled out a chair for Isadora, his gaze cutting into Zack with dangerous awareness. "Forgive our delay. The layout of your palace quarters makes for a long walk."
Zack tore his eyes away from Isadora, his chest heaving as he forced a tight, rigid smile. "The Silverborn Pack is accustomed to vast spaces, Alpha Helios. I merely wanted to ensure you felt secure in more... intimate confines."
"A cage lined with lead is never secure, Alpha Zack," Isadora chimed in, her voice smooth, dripping with a velvet melody that made the hairs on Zack's arms stand up. "It just makes the beast inside louder."
Zack's wolf roared beneath his skin, completely disarmed and infuriated by her tongue. He gripped the edge of the table, his knuckles turning white. He has never heard anyone speak to him with such casual audacity, let alone a woman he barely knew.
Across the table, Hera sat down beside Princess Sylvia, her breath catching as her eyes met Helios's. The bond between them flared instantly, an intoxicating current of cinnamon and storm filling her senses. She felt incomplete no longer; just being in the same room as him made her wolf settle into a fierce, protective hum.
Helios reached out under the table, his large hand briefly finding Hera's knee, giving it a firm, reassuring squeeze that promised her everything without a single word. Hera leaned into the phantom warmth, her heart hammering against her ribs.
But Zack wasn't looking at his supposed mate anymore. His eyes were drawn back to Isadora like a moth to a flame. She was dissecting a piece of meat on her plate with elegant precision, entirely unbothered by the heavy political tension.
"You seem distracted, Alpha Zack," Isadora murmured without looking up, the silver curls on the side of her face swaying forward. "Is the food not to your liking? Or are you still recovering from the exhaustion of your coronation?"
A few of the remaining foreign Alphas at the table shifted uncomfortably, sensing the open mockery.
"I am perfectly fine, Princess," Zack ground out, his voice dropping an octave, trying to assert his newly crowned Alpha authority. "I am simply wondering how a guest in my palace forgets her manners so quickly."
Isadora paused. She set her fork down with a soft clink that echoed through the silent hall. She raised her head, cleaning a stray tear of mock amusement from the corner of her eye, and looked at him with a perfectly straight face.
"Manners are for equals, Alpha Zack," she said softly, leaning forward just enough to bring that intoxicating, celestial scent closer to him. "And right now, you look less like an Alpha and more like a boy trying very hard to hold onto a crown that feels a little too heavy."
The insult was quiet, fluid, and utterly lethal.
Zack stood up so fast his chair scraped violently against the stone floor. His eyes flashed a dark, dangerous amber. "You dare insult me in my own hall?"
Helios didn't move a muscle, but his golden eyes glowed with a silent warning, his massive frame ready to tear the room apart if Zack made a single move toward Isadora. Darian and Cassia's hands subtly dropped toward their sides.
Isadora, however, didn't even flinch. She slowly leaned back in her chair, looking up at the raging Alpha with the most beautiful, mocking smile he had ever seen.
"Sit down, Zack," she whispered. The command wasn't wrapped in an Alpha's roar, but there was something so cultured, so fundamentally commanding in her voice that Zack's wolf instinctively recoiled, his knees unlocking subconsciously.
He gave himself a brutal mental slap, forcing his body to stay upright, but the damage was done. He had hesitated. He had let her down his guard yet again.
"This dinner is over," Zack hissed, his pride bleeding out in front of the remaining Alphas. He looked at Hera, then at Helios, and finally fixed his gaze on Isadora, whose silver hair seemed to mock him in the dim light. "We will settle our negotiations at the truce ground. Do not tempt my patience further."
Without waiting for a response, Zack turned on his heel and walked out of the dining hall gracefully, his cape billowing behind him, though inside, his mind was a chaotic, furious storm. He didn't know what kind of game Princess Isadora was playing, but as he stormed down the corridor, his heart was pounding, not from the threat of Alpha Helios, but from the terrifying realization that he couldn't get the silver-haired Princess out of his head.