Chapter 6

Ruby's POV 

Gloria arrived at my room early the next morning with tea and a determined look on her face. She did not knock and she did not wait for permission. She just walked in like she owned the place and set the tea tray down on the small table by the window.

"Get up," she said. "We have work to do."

I sat up slowly, my body still aching from last night. The humiliation was still fresh and the memory of Kane's cold dismissal burned in my chest like acid. But Gloria was not interested in my pain. She pulled open the curtains and sunlight flooded the room.

"If you want to survive here, you need to stop acting like a victim," she said, pouring the tea. "Kane does not respect weakness. He never will."

"I am not weak," I said quietly.

"Then stop acting like it." She handed me a cup. "Drink. We have a lot to cover and not much time."

The tea was bitter but warm. I wrapped my hands around the cup and let the heat seep into my fingers. Gloria sat across from me and studied my face like she was trying to read something written there.

"Do you know what seduction actually is?" she asked.

I blinked. "What?"

"Seduction. Real seduction. Not the cheap version you see in movies or read about in romance novels." She leaned forward. "It is not about revealing skin or batting your eyelashes. It is about making a man come to you instead of you chasing him."

I did not know what to say to that. The idea of Kane coming to me seemed impossible. He had made it very clear last night that he wanted nothing to do with me.

"You are thinking about last night," Gloria said, reading my face easily. "Stop. Last night was a test and you failed. But tests can be retaken."

"A test?" My voice came out sharper than I intended. "He humiliated me in front of everyone."

"Yes. And you let him." Gloria set her cup down. "You stood there and took it because you thought that was what a good wife does. But Kane does not want a good wife. He wants someone who challenges him."

"He wants me to challenge him?" I shook my head. "That makes no sense."

"It makes perfect sense if you understand who Kane is." Gloria stood and walked to the mirror. "Come here."

I got up and joined her. She positioned me in front of the glass and stood behind me, her hands on my shoulders.

"Look at yourself," she said. "What do you see?"

"I see a girl who does not belong here."

"Wrong." Her grip tightened. "You see the future Luna of this pack. Start acting like it."

She adjusted my posture, pulling my shoulders back and lifting my chin. The change was subtle but immediate. The girl in the mirror looked different. Stronger.

"Body language is everything," Gloria said. "When Kane walks into a room, do not jump to attention like a frightened rabbit. Acknowledge him but do not give him your full focus. Let him wonder what you are thinking about."

"That seems manipulative."

"It is strategic. There is a difference." She moved around me, examining me from different angles. "Kane is a predator. Predators only value what they have to hunt. If you make yourself too easy for him, he will lose interest. If you make yourself impossible, he will obsess."

I practiced what she showed me. Holding eye contact without flinching. Smiling just enough to seem mysterious but not eager. Moving with deliberate calm instead of nervous energy. It felt like playing a role in a play I had never auditioned for.

"Better," Gloria said after a while. "Now listen carefully. Kane will test you again. He will try to break you because that is what he does. But you cannot let him see you broken. You can hurt, you can bleed, but you cannot shatter."

"Why does he do this?" I asked. "Why does he push everyone away?"

Gloria's expression changed. Something dark crossed her face and she walked back to the window. She stood there for a long moment, staring out at the pack grounds.

"You really do not know, do you?" she said finally.

"Know what?"

"About his family."

My stomach dropped. "I know his parents are dead."

"Dead is not the right word." Gloria turned to face me. "Murdered. Along with his sister."

The room felt suddenly colder. I had heard whispers about Kane being an orphan but no one ever gave details. Asking about the alpha's past was dangerous.

"What happened?" I whispered.

Gloria sat down heavily. "Kane was twenty-three. He had gone to the northern territories for advanced alpha training. It was supposed to be three months. He was only two months in when the attack happened."

"Attack?"

"A group of wolves wanted the alpha position. They thought if they eliminated the bloodline, they could claim leadership." Her voice was flat, emotionless. "They broke into the pack house in the middle of the night. They killed Kane's father first. Then his mother. Then they went after his sister."

I pressed my hand to my mouth. "How old was she?"

"Sixteen."

The word hung in the air like poison. Sixteen. Just a girl. Younger than I was now.

"By the time Kane got the message and came home, it was over," Gloria continued. "His entire family was already buried. The council had handled everything. They thought they were being merciful by sparing him the sight of their bodies."

I could not speak. My throat was too tight.

"Kane hunted down every single one of the killers," Gloria said. "It took him three years. Some he killed quickly. Others..." She paused and her hands trembled slightly. "Others he made suffer. I will not tell you the details because you do not need those images in your head. But understand this. Kane learned that there are things worse than death and he made sure those men experienced all of them."

I sat down because my legs would not hold me anymore. Everything about Kane suddenly made terrible sense. The coldness. The walls. The way he pushed people away before they could get close. He was not cruel by nature. He was cruel because cruelty had been carved into him by unbearable loss.

"He is afraid," I said softly.

"Terrified," Gloria agreed. "Of feeling anything. Of letting anyone matter. Because when you love people, you give them the power to destroy you. And Kane has already been destroyed once."

"The girl in the photograph," I said, remembering the frame on his desk. "That was his sister."

Gloria nodded. "Elise. He keeps her picture there as a reminder."

"A reminder of what?"

"That love is a weakness he cannot afford."

We sat in silence after that. I tried to process everything I had just learned. Kane was not the monster I had thought he was. He was a man so damaged by trauma that he had forgotten how to be anything else. And I was supposed to somehow reach through all that pain and make him feel again.

"This is impossible," I whispered.

"Probably," Gloria said. "But you are going to try anyway because the alternative is spending the rest of your life married to a ghost."

She was right. I could not live like this. I could not spend decades being rejected and humiliated by a man who would never let me in. Either I found a way to reach him or I would break under the weight of this loveless marriage.

"Teach me," I said.

Gloria smiled. "I already am."

We spent the next hour going over strategies. She told me when Kane was most vulnerable, which was usually late at night when exhaustion lowered his guard. She explained how he used anger as a shield and how silence was often more effective than arguing. She taught me to read the subtle shifts in his body language that revealed what he was really feeling beneath the cold exterior.

I absorbed everything. This was my only chance and I could not afford to waste it.

"Remember," Gloria said as she prepared to leave. "You are not trying to seduce him into bed. You are trying to seduce him into feeling. That is much harder."

I nodded. "I understand."

"Good. Because if you fail, it will not just break your heart. It will break his too. And a broken alpha is dangerous for everyone."

She left and I stood alone in my room, staring at my reflection in the mirror. The girl looking back at me was different from the one who had arrived here yesterday. She looked stronger. More determined. But underneath all of that, she was still terrified.

I did not hear the door open behind me. I did not notice the change in temperature or the way the air seemed to go still. I was too lost in my own thoughts.

It was only when I saw the reflection of someone standing behind me that I realized I was no longer alone.

I turned slowly and my heart stopped.

Kane stood in the doorway and his expression was unreadable. How long had he been there? How much had he heard?

"Talking about me behind my back, wife?" His voice was dangerously soft. "I thought I taught you better than that last night.”