POV Eva
The great hall has never felt so much like a tomb.
Crystal chandeliers cast cold light across assembled faces—pack council in their formal attire, allied families watching with polite interest, servants moving silently along the walls.
All four princes occupy their designated seats, each carrying their own secrets behind carefully composed expressions.
And at the head of the table, my father presides like a king awaiting tribute.
I sit rigid in my chair, spine straight, hands folded in my lap to hide their trembling. The announcement is supposed to happen tonight.
My choice. My future. The words I've rehearsed a hundred times sit heavy on my tongue.
I choose Prince Soren of the Northern Pack.
The logical choice. The father of my child. The alliance that makes sense.
But every time I try to summon conviction, my eyes drift to Dominic standing at his post near the door. His dark gaze meets mine for a heartbeat before we both look away.
My father rises, and the room falls silent.
Something in his expression makes my blood freeze.
"Distinguished guests."
His voice carries across the hall with absolute authority.
"We have gathered tonight to celebrate the conclusion of my daughter's courtship. But before any announcements are made, there is a matter of honor that must be addressed."
Honor. The word lands like a blade.
My heart pounds louder with each passing second. Across the table, Khalil rises from his seat and moves to stand beside my father. His face wears a mask of righteous concern—gentle, sorrowful, reluctant.
The face of a man about to destroy me.
"Prince Khalil has brought certain information to my attention," my father continues. "Information that concerns the integrity of this courtship and the honor of our bloodline."
"Alpha King, I wish I didn't have to speak."
Khalil's voice carries that soothing quality that once made me feel safe. Now it sounds like poison. "But my conscience won't allow me to remain silent while deception takes root in your house."
"What deception?" Sebastian's golden brow furrows with confusion. "What's going on?"
Khalil turns to address the assembly, every inch the honorable prince forced into an uncomfortable duty.
"I recently overheard a conversation that revealed disturbing truths." His amber eyes find mine, cold as I've ever seen them. "Princess Evangeline is pregnant."
The whispers erupt like wildfire.
"Furthermore," Khalil continues over the rising murmurs, "the timeline of conception proves the child was conceived before the courtship began. Before any of us arrived at this estate."
"That's impossible." An council’s voice, sharp with disbelief. "The princess has been sheltered. Protected. She couldn't have…"
"And yet she did." Khalil's sympathy is a knife wrapped in silk. "I take no pleasure in revealing this. But every prince at this table has been deceived. Every council member. Every allied family who came here in good faith."
He bows his head. "I only wished to protect the pack's honor."
I can't breathe.
The whispers have become a roar—shocked gasps, scandalized murmurs, the rustle of bodies turning to stare at me with horror and disgust.
I feel their judgment like physical weight, pressing down until my lungs refuse to expand.
My father's face is volcanic. Ice-white rage burns behind his eyes, barely contained, threatening to erupt and consume everything in its path. His hands grip the edge of the table hard enough to crack the wood.
"Is this true?" His voice is deadly quiet. "Evangeline. Look at me. Is this true?"
I force myself to meet his gaze. Force words past the tightness in my throat.
"Father, I can explain…"
"Is. This. True."
The hall falls deathly silent. Every eye fixed on me. Every breath held.
"Yes." The word comes out broken. "It's true."
The explosion I expected doesn't come. Instead, something worse—my father's expression closes like a door slamming shut. Whatever love he once held for me dies in that moment, replaced by cold, absolute disgust.
"You've destroyed us." His voice carries to every corner of the hall. "Twelve generations of honor. Our sacred bloodline. And you've destroyed it all for one night of whoring."
"Alpha King…" Sebastian starts.
"Don't." My father rounds on him. "Don't defend her. She's made fools of every man at this table. Every family who trusted in the integrity of this courtship."
I look at Sebastian—beautiful, kind Sebastian—and watch his expression shatter. Confusion gives way to hurt, then betrayal, then something that looks like his heart breaking.
He trusted me. Opened himself to me. And I lied to his face every single day.
"Eva?" His voice cracks. "Is that why you... in the meadow, when we..." He can't finish. Can't acknowledge what we did while she carried another man's child.
"Sebastian, I'm sorry." Tears stream down my face. "I'm so sorry."
He looks away. Can't bear to see me anymore.
My gaze finds Dominic across the hall. He stands frozen at his post, face pale as death, hands trembling at his sides.
Our eyes meet, and I watch him understand—everything is about to collapse. Everything we built in stolen moments. Everything we risked for one night of honesty.
He takes a half-step toward me, protective instinct overriding sense.
I shake my head minutely. Don't. Don't give them more ammunition.
He stops. But his eyes never leave mine.
Matteo and Soren react with calculated stillness. Neither confirms nor denies involvement—their faces are masks of careful neutrality.
But I see Matteo's jaw tighten, see the fury burning in his dark eyes. Not at me. At Khalil.
Soren has gone rigid as marble. His pale gaze fixes on me with something complicated—protectiveness warring with self-preservation.
He's the father. If that truth emerges, he's destroyed too. But revealing it now might be the only thing that saves me.
He says nothing.
I understand. I hate it, but I understand.
"The question remains," my father continues, "who is responsible for this... contamination. Which wolf defiled my daughter before claiming to court her honorably?"
Silence stretches across the hall. The princes exchange glances. The council waited with bated breath.
No one speaks.
"Very well." My father's smile is cruel. "We'll determine paternity through other means. And when we do, both the father and my daughter will face the full consequences of pack law."
"Father, please…"
"You are no longer my daughter." The words land like physical blows. "You are a disgrace to the Aldridge name. A stain on everything our bloodline represents."
I sit surrounded by wreckage, utterly alone.
The council won't meet my eyes. Sebastian stares at the table, broken. Khalil watches with that poisonous sympathy, satisfied with the destruction he's wrought. My father looks at me like I'm already dead.
And Dominic, my Dominic, stands helpless across the hall, unable to reach me, unable to save me, forced to watch as everything burns.
This is what destruction looks like.
This is how it feels to lose everything.