Oops! My Twin Alphas Claimed Me

Chapter 18: Fire Answers Fire

Chapter 18: Fire Answers Fire

The formal dinner for the eastern delegation should have been a simple affair... polite conversation, careful diplomacy, the usual dance of alliances and old grievances smoothed over with good wine. It lasted exactly as long as it took Selene to imply, quite deliberately, that Silvermoon's new arrangement made it a less reliable ally than it used to be.

"Two Alphas sharing rule so evenly is admirable, in theory," she said, swirling her wine with a delicate, unbothered air, addressing the table at large though her eyes stayed fixed on Ryker. "Though I imagine it makes decisive action rather more complicated. Our own pack has always valued a single, clear voice in matters of war. It tends to move faster than consensus."

"Silvermoon moved fast enough to break a Shadowfang assault without your pack's help," Ryker said, tone deceptively pleasant, though I recognized the dangerous stillness settling into his shoulders. "Decisive action doesn't require a single voice. It requires trust between the voices you have."

"Of course," Selene said, smiling like she hadn't just been handed a pointed rebuttal. "Though trust can be a fragile thing, especially when both voices are competing for the same mate's attention. I only wonder how quickly that trust holds up under real pressure, rather than training-yard theatrics."

The table went quiet. I felt Ash go rigid beside me, and across the table, Ryker's jaw tightened in a way I'd learned meant he was one careless word away from losing his temper entirely.

"Careful," Ash said under his breath, meant only for his brother.

Ryker ignored him.

"You want to test how our trust holds under pressure?" Ryker set down his glass with deliberate precision, leaning forward, amber eyes flashing gold at the edges. "Ask the Shadowfang warriors who limped home from our border. Ask them how decisive Silvermoon looked, working together instead of competing for a crown."

"I only meant—"

"I know exactly what you meant." His voice dropped lower, harder, the full weight of Alpha authority bleeding into it now. "You came here hoping to find cracks to exploit for your pack's advantage. Find them somewhere else. My mate isn't a weakness to be leveraged in a trade negotiation, and neither is my brother."

Selene's composure flickered... the first genuine crack I'd seen in her polished exterior since she'd arrived. "There's no need for hostility, Alpha Ryker. I came in good faith, on behalf of an allied pack."

"You came testing whether an omega Luna and a shared throne made us soft," Ryker said flatly. "You have your answer."

The rest of the delegation shifted uncomfortably in their seats, clearly unprepared for the diplomatic dinner to have turned so sharply. Ash, beside me, finally spoke, his voice carrying the calm, deliberate authority that usually smoothed over exactly this kind of tension.

"What my brother means," he said, though there was no softening the substance of it, only the delivery, "is that Silvermoon's alliance with your pack remains valued, but not at the cost of insults dressed as diplomacy. I'd ask that further discussions stick to the matters that actually brought your delegation here."

Selene recovered quickly, offering a graceful, if strained, incline of her head. "Of course. My apologies if my words carried more weight than intended."

The rest of dinner passed in stiffer, more careful conversation, the earlier warmth of the evening thoroughly extinguished. I said little, watching the way Ryker's temper simmered just beneath the surface for the remainder of the meal, watching Ash work quietly to smooth over the damage without ever quite forgiving the insult that had caused it.

Later, alone in our rooms, Ryker paced with barely restrained energy, the confrontation clearly still burning through him.

"She had no right," he said, more to himself than to me. "Coming into our home, questioning what we've built—"

"You handled it," I said, though I could feel how close to the surface his temper still ran.

"I wanted to do far worse than handle it," he admitted, stopping his pacing to look at me directly, something rawer underneath the anger now. "The moment she implied you were a weakness—" He stopped himself, jaw working.

"I'm not made of glass, Ryker," I said gently, crossing the room to him. "I can withstand a woman's jealousy dressed up as diplomacy."

"I know that." His hands came up to frame my face, gentler now than the fury still simmering in his eyes. "But I don't ever want you to have to. Not while I'm standing beside you."

I understood, in that moment, something about Ryker I hadn't fully grasped before... that his fire wasn't simply possessiveness or ego. It was armor, built around a fierce, uncompromising need to protect what mattered to him, forged from a lifetime of learning that softness alone hadn't been enough to keep his family whole.

"Thank you," I said quietly, "for defending both of us tonight. Not just me."

Something eased in his expression at that, the tightly coiled tension finally beginning to loosen. "Always," he said, low and certain, pulling me against his chest. "Fire answers fire, little omega. Anyone who brings a challenge to this house had better be ready for exactly that."