Ethan's POV
Ethan’s mind stalled into blank, unadulterated shock. His cheek burned with a stinging, violent heat, the sound of the impact still echoing like a gunshot through the stone corridor.
She slapped me. The realization hit him like a physical blow. Lane had struck him. She had laid her hands on her fated mate, the Alpha of the Blackwood Pack, and she had done it in the middle of a hallway, right in front of Maris and the lower staff. All for a common maid.
A primal, vicious instinct reared its head within him, his arm automatically twitching as his body prepared to strike back, to enforce the absolute submission expected of any wolf who dared defy an Alpha. But he froze.
The image of Lane’s dying mother flashed behind his eyes—the memory of the fragile woman holding his hand,
