Page 92 of The Alpha's Fated Bond

Not fucking likely.I grab his wrist, sending an electric shock through his system. He stumbles back, and Alex is by my side in a heartbeat.

I tell him, “I need time. You have to buy me time.”

I grab my own throat. The mute spell. It’s gone! How did that happen?

The confusion is clear in Alex’s wolf eyes. I point toward my mother. “I can’t explain right now. I have to help her.”

The whole ballroom has erupted into chaos. Alex and I both know that we are in a dangerous situation. Neither Noah nor Karina will let us leave here peacefully.

“Silence!” Karina shouts, her voice amplified by magic. She glares at Noah. “What is going on? You said she was an attendant!”

Noah is silent as he stands up again. Karina studies him for a moment, and realization dawns in her eyes.

“It seems you have brought me the Silver Wolf.” She begins to smile. “And here I thought my soldiers were bringing her to me. I thank you for your gift—”

“She’s not a gift to you, Queen Karina. She’s from the South, and she is my father’s murderer. You have no jurisdiction in the South Alliance.” Noah’s words are sharp.

“But she is the mate of one of my Alphas. That means she belongs to the North.”

“She not his mate yet,” Noah counters. “She’s not wearing his mating mark. Therefore, she still belongs to the South, and since she is from my pack, she belongs to me. According to pack law, I can choose her punishment for killing my father.”

“Your father imprisoned my mother for years and wanted to use me as a broodmare!” I snarl at him. “Robert Black isolated and tortured both me and my mother. And he tried to kill my mate! I had every right to seek revenge!”

Noah glowers at me, and the Alphas from the South blink at each other in shock. The representatives of the Central Alliance are not looking happy, but they’re holding their silence for now.

“Lies—” Noah begins.

“I have proof!” I shout.

“Enough!” Karina’s voice booms in the ballroom. She glares at Noah. “It seems your father wasn’t the man we believed him to be. Imprisoning another shifter?”

“Isn’t that what you’re planning to do to her?” Noah counters with a sneer.

Karina’s eyes narrow into slits. “You don’t think I’m going to let you walk out of here with the Silver Wolf in your hands, do you, Alpha Black?”

“You’re going to let me do whatever I want,” Noah sneers, his mask of politeness long gone. “If you harm or try to take one of my people, you are inciting a war with the South. Do you really want to go down that path?”

Karina’s face is white with fury. Alex shifts into his human form and looks at the other leaders of the North Alliance. “Today, she’s going after my mate. Tomorrow, it’s going to be yours. You can either stand here and let this happen, or you can do something about it right now.”

There is hesitance on the faces of the men looking at Alex. One of them speaks up, his voice defeated. “It will take her one phone call, Alpha Stone, to wipe out our entire nursery. How can you expect us to risk our children?”

I have to agree with them. However, the reaction of the leaders from the South Alliance takes me by surprise.

“The Silver Wolf is from the South?”

“If the Silver Wolf is from our Alliance and she is as powerful as Karina claims, she’s no ordinary wolf.”

“Why should she be under any pack when she is so powerful?”

Alex takes advantage of the growing confusion and whispers to me, “You never should have come here! And why did you attack Lily?”

“You should have told me what you were planning!” I retort. “And Lily’s a traitor! She’s Noah’s fated mate! A lot has happened. Now is not the time.”

He’s silent, but his expression twists in anger as he looks at Lily. All of a sudden, she jumps to her feet and strides toward us, rage all over her face.

“I warned you, Sophia! I told you what would happen!” With a vicious look in her eyes, Lily lifts her hand and aims it at my mother. But nothing happens. She goes still, confusion on her face now. “What’s happening?” She lifts her hand once more, but again, nothing.

“You were right,” I tell her. “Whatever that thing is, I can’t touch it. But I can wrap my own magic around it. And you cannot control my magic.”

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