CLAWS OF FATE

CHAPTER THREE

"I'm afraid you have me confused with someone else."

My voice doesn't shake. Ten years with Thane taught me that much—never let them see you bleed, especially when they're holding the knife.

Zephyr's laugh is razors wrapped in silk. "Really? That's the game you want to play?"

"It's not a game." I bend gracefully to collect the broken champagne flute, using the movement to steady myself. "My name is Evangeline Northcrest, and I have no idea who this Seraphine person is supposed to be."

"Evangeline." He tastes the name like poison. "How creative. Tell me, 'Lady Evangeline,' do you often crash parties under false pretenses?"

"I was invited." I straighten, cradling the crystal shards in my palm without flinching as they bite into my skin. "Your Beta personally extended the invitation to my pack."

"Funny thing about that invitation." His smile could freeze hell. "I checked with Beta Thomas this morning. He's never heard of the Northcrest pack."

The crystal cuts deeper, but I let it.

Deep breaths Sera… deep breaths.

Don’t let him see through you.

"Well, Perhaps there was a miscommunication—"

"Perhaps you're full of shit."

I frowned at the curse word and gave him a pointed glare but the bastard didn’t seem fazed in the slightest.

"That's quite an accusation." I drop the bloody glass onto a servant's tray, ignoring his horrified expression. "Especially toward a guest."

"Guest?" Zephyr steps closer, his presence suffocating. "Guests don't usually plant listening devices in bathrooms."

My heart stops. "I beg your pardon?"

"Did you really think we wouldn't sweep for surveillance?" He pulls a tiny device from his pocket—one of mine, crushed between his fingers like an insect. "Amateur hour, little wolf."

The endearment from our childhood sounds obscene in his mouth now. I force my expression to remain puzzled, innocent, while my mind races through escape routes.

"I don't know what that is."

"Course you don't." His eyes narrow to dark slits. "Just like you don't know why you're really here. Just like you don't know what your murdering father did to my brother."

"Look, I think there's been some terrible mistake—"

"The only mistake was letting you live." The words come out soft, conversational, more terrifying than any shout. "But don't worry. I plan to correct that oversight."

Ice flows through my veins, but I keep my chin up. "Are you threatening me?"

"It’s not a threat. It is a promise and it’s one I plan to keep onto.."

I swallowed again, looking around the hall to catch worried glances, excited whispers, the metallic scent of anticipation.

"I don't want any trouble." I take a step back, playing the frightened socialite to perfection. "If my presence offends you, I'll simply leave."

"Will you?" His voice drops to a predatory purr. "Because last I checked, you were banished from this territory. Forever."

"Actually," I say carefully, "the banishment was for ten years. Which ended six months ago, Zeph.”

Zephyr’s eyes widened and the silence that follows could choke a grown man.

Zephyr's jaw works like he's chewing glass, and I see the exact moment he realizes I'm right. Legally, technically, frustratingly right.

“So now you are finally willing to drop the act?”

“I…”

"Ten years." The words sound like he's tasting bile. "Ten years, and you think that makes us even?"

"I don’t care what you ghink. All I know is that I’m a free woman. Free to go where I please, and there’s nothing wrong with me deciding to come back home.”

"This place isn't home for a traitor like you." The words explode from him with such venom that nearby wolves actually flinch.

“That isn’t left for you to decide!” My voice rose slightly now, and I distantly realized that we were now standing dangerously close to each other.

“Actually it is left for me to decide! I’m the alpha now, and I am deciding that I don’t want you and your traitorous stench tainting our pack.”

Something cracks inside my chest at his words and For just a moment, I recall the seven years old boy, who’d put himself between me and the older kids who called me names. Sharing his favorite cookies when mine got stolen. Whispering secrets in our hidden fort by the lake.

That boy who swore we'd be friends forever.

That boy who stood silent while they executed my father.

"Taint?" The word slips out sharper than intended. "Like I said, I have no interest in trouble.”

“Oh you already started courting trouble the moment you thought you could waltz back in here!”He barks a laugh. "your father was a murderer who killed Marcus in cold blood and you're exactly like him."

"My father was never a traitor!”

"No?" Zephyr circles me again, each step calculated to intimidate. "Then why are you here, Seraphine? What's your real agenda?"

Because I remember a ten-year-old boy crying over his dead brother. Because I loved you once, before you became this. Because someone in this room knows what really happened that night, and it wasn't my father.

I wanted to yell these words, but instead I said, "I told you. I'm just here for the party."

"Right. The murderer's daughter, coincidentally showing up at the exact pack where her father committed his crimes. What are the odds?"

"Astronomical," I agree pleasantly. "Almost like fate."

His eyes flash gold—wolf rising to the surface. "Fate's got a sick sense of humor then."

"Doesn't it just."

The crowd around us has grown thicker, pressing closer like vultures sensing dead wolves. I can feel their excitement, their hunger for blood and scandal.

In the distance, I spot Luna Catherine wringing her hands, probably wondering how her elegant soirée turned into a public execution.

"I should go." I smooth down my skirt with hands that don't tremble. "Thank you for the... enlightening conversation."

I turn toward the exit, dismissing him like he's nothing more than an inconvenient stranger. It's a calculated insult, designed to wound his Alpha pride and create the opening I need to escape.

His hand closes around my wrist before I take two steps.

"We're not done talking."

The moment his skin touches mine, the world explodes.

Lightning races up my arm, setting every nerve ending on fire. The mate bond slams into place with the force of a freight train, stealing my breath and short-circuiting my brain. My wolf, dormant for hours, suddenly howls with recognition and desperate want.

Mine. Mine. Mine.

Zephyr's pupils blow wide, his grip tightening involuntarily as the same realization crashes over him. I watch his carefully controlled mask crumble, replaced by shock so profound he looks like he's been struck by actual lightning.

"No." The word rips from his throat like a prayer. "No, this can't—"

But the bond doesn't care about his denial. It wraps around us both like chains made of starlight and inevitability, binding us together whether we want it or not.

My worst enemy.

My destined mate.

The boy who let my family burn.

I yank my hand free so violently I nearly fall backward. The loss of contact feels like tearing away part of my soul, but I grit my teeth against the pain.

"No…no no no!” My voice comes out raw, broken.

He stares at his own hand like it's betrayed him. "This isn't possible."

"Clearly the Moon Goddess has a twisted sense of humor."

"She wouldn't—" He cuts himself off, probably remembering we have an audience hanging on every word.

Around us, the pack members exchange confused glances. They can't feel what we feel, can't sense the cosmic joke that just unfolds both our worlds. But they can smell the change in our scents, see the shock written across our faces.

"I need air." I push past him toward the terrace doors, my legs unsteady beneath me.

"Seraphine, wait—"

"Don't follow me."

I don't run. Running would show weakness, and I've shown enough of that for one night. But I walk fast, my heels clicking against the marble like a knock on a tiled floor.

Behind me, I hear him curse in a voice that sounds as shattered as I feel.

The mate bond hums between us like a live wire, even with distance. Even with ten years of hurt and betrayal and blood standing between us.

Even when I wish it would just disappear.

But I knew better.

Zephyr, the Alpha who loathes me is my mate.