LOGINAria’s POVI watched his throat work. Watched his gaze slide to my scars again.He remembered what the healers had said when he first found me:If it hadn’t been for the salt, the wounds would’ve festered and killed me. But because of it, the scars will never fade without a skin graft.And now, the video matched every word.His hand tightened around Sandra’s wrist until his knuckles whitened. “Tell me the truth,” he said hoarsely. “Did you do it?”“I didn’t!” Tears spilled down her cheeks. “How can you even ask me that? After everything? Do you really think I’m that cruel?”He stared at her.No, said the part of him that needed her to be good. She couldn’t be.In his mind, she was still the girl who “sacrificed” for him five years ago. The girl who held his guilt in her hands.He looked from her to me. Then he stepped in front of her, shielding her with his body, and faced me instead.“Aria,” he said, voice low and strained, “what are you doing?”I said nothing.“This is Vane Hall’s D
Aria’s POV“Who are you?”Lady Maren’s fingers tightened around her bracelet until the gems clicked. The tall stranger didn’t bother looking at her. His gaze brushed lazily over the hall, Lycus, Sandra, the stunned crowd, and me.Lycus’s eyes narrowed. “And you are?”The man’s tone was light, almost bored. “You don’t need to know who I am. The real question is whether Aria Thorn was abused.”His voice shifted the entire room’s attention back to me in a heartbeat.At that moment, the guards parted near the main archway.The Sauders’ butler stepped in. He looked older than I remembered him.Sandra’s gaze darkened the second she saw him. “You,” she hissed. “You work for my family. Don’t even think about betraying us because someone tossed you a few coins.”In one sentence, she tried to label him a liar before he even opened his mouth.I almost laughed. When it came to shamelessness, none could match her.The butler’s face twisted with anger. “Young mistress, you threatened my son’s life
Sandra reeled back. “No! No, it wasn’t! The video’s fake!”She was shaking, truly shaking now.“How? There were no crystals down there!” she panicked. “There were no runes! How did she—how—”‘Liar,’ her eyes screamed.Her mother rushed forward, venom gleaming behind forced tears. “This girl is framing us! Aria was raised like a princess! We never laid a finger on her. She was trouble, sneaking around with boys. We disciplined her like any parent would!”A murmur spread.“Sleeping around?”“At that age?”“Disgraceful!”Lycus turned to me, disbelief warping his features. “So that’s where the scars came from.”His tone, accusation instead of concern, should’ve gutted me. It didn’t.I met Sandra’s gaze. She looked just like she had in that cellar. Drunk on cruelty, confident in the world she believed she owned.I laughed softly. “Lady Maren,” I said, “you’re right. There wasn’t a crystal in the cellar at first.”The woman froze.“But do you remember the night you went down there alone to
Aria’s POVThe hall was silent enough to hear a feather drop.Then the projection began to play.The air rippled, and the ward-screen brightened until the image sharpened. It was the stone chamber I knew too well. The Sauders’ old cellar, the place where I had almost died.On the screen, Sandra, five years younger, draped in a crimson riding cloak, wrapped her hand in my hair and slammed my head against a rusted pipe. Blood spilled down my lashes like red rain.“You filthy girl,” she spat at the version of me on the ground. “You stole eighteen years of my life. You should’ve died, Aria!”She struck me again and again.My younger self collapsed like a limp rag, her back a raw mess of open wounds and torn flesh. Sandra lifted a crocodile-skin whip and cracked it through the air.“Go to hell!”My younger self screamed curling in on herself, trembling violently. The sound tore through the hall like a blade.I heard wolves gasp. Someone swore under their breath.The memory washed over me.
Crystals flared as scribes and messengers recorded the scene. I ignored them.I stood barefoot on the cold stone, facing the two people who had shaped my life more than anyone else. “This is everything,” I said evenly. “Nothing left but my underwear. If Alpha Vane and Luna Sandra still think I’m hiding something, they’re welcome to search me themselves.”Lycus’s face blanched. His eyes were fixed on my back. He must be reliving the cellar again, the blood, and the way I’d flinched from even a gentle touch.He looked afraid.Sandra stared, then her lip curled. Confusion flickered, then calculation settled. “Oh, right,” she said loudly, turning to the crowd. “You all probably don’t know. Aria was thrown out of my parents’ house for being… a slut. Even as a teenager she couldn’t keep her legs shut.”A disgusted murmur spread.“So those marks…” someone whispered.“Punishment,” another voice said. “No wonder they cast her out.”Sandra smiled, sweetly. “She liked sneaking men into the hous
Aria's POVLycus froze where he stood. His face drained of color. He’d seen those scars before. He was the one who’d tended them with trembling hands, whispering that I’d never be hurt again.Yet here I was on my knees, humiliated, because he’d stayed silent.Across the room, a man’s glass shattered in his hand. Blood ran down his wrist, red against the white marble. I felt his power before I saw him. Raw, cold, and dangerous.His golden eyes burned across the hall, locking on Sandra, then sliding to me. His aura hit the air like frost.“Let me go! This is against the pack law!”I twisted hard, but the two guards held me fast, one on each arm, their fingers digging into my skin.My gaze snapped to Lycus. “Look at me,” I said, teeth clenched. “Can you really stand there and say Sandra is Sundar?”The hall went quiet.My eyes were burning, but I refused to look away. On my back, the torn strap of my dress slipped lower, the cool air brushing old scars.He took an involuntary step toward







