Cecilia’s pov
I hit the floor hard, feeling the cold marble against my palms. The pain was sharp but distant compared to the turmoil in the room.
Xavier hadn’t even recovered from the shock of my divorce bombshell when Cici’s next words stunned everyone in the ballroom.
"Xavier, she’s contaminated now!" Cici scread, her perfect makeup falling apart under her rage. "Last night she slept with eight n! One of them even has AIDS! She’s gross, she’s ruined—she’s absolutely disgusting! How could you still want her?"
I fought to control my rage as I pushed myself up from the floor, my injured wrist throbbing with each heartbeat.
The entire ballroom went dead silent. I could practically see the thoughts forming in everyone’s minds: Eight guys in one night? Soone with AIDS? Was this even real?
Then ca the inevitable question that flickered across every face: How did Cici know these details so perfectly?
From the corner of my eye, I saw Dora sway slightly, her face going completely white, suddenly resembling parchnt.
I stood up, dusting off my dress with deliberate calm, and fixed Cici with a look reserved for sothing one might scrape off the bottom of a shoe.
"I hadn’t even gotten around to dealing with you yet," I said evenly, "but you’ve gone and spilled everything yourself. Dumb and evil—what a combination."
I turned to Dora, whose mouth opened and closed like a fish gasping for air. "Is this your idea of a proper Luna? Soone who pulls criminal stunts with you? Soone who’ll share a jail cell with you?"
Xavier’s expression had transford into sothing terrifying—cold, dark, murderous. The ballroom temperature seed to plumt as his wolf, Kael, unleashed the Alpha’s power throughout the hall.
The White family mbers shifted uncomfortably, their earlier confidence lting away as they began to understand the implications.
The whispers started again, but with a totally different vibe: "Did Cici and Luna Dora set Cecilia up?"
It would explain everything—my injured wrist, my dramatic entrance, the blood mixing with wine. Even the most promiscuous woman wouldn’t willingly sleep with eight n in one night, especially knowing one was infected. Nobody would deliberately hurt themselves like that.
"Why are you all looking at like that?" Cici shrieked, still not grasping how badly she’d screwed up. "Don’t listen to her! She’s the slut! She has AIDS—stay away from her before she gives it to all of you!"
Before she could finish her tirade, Xavier’s hand shot out like lightning, wrapping around her throat and dragging her forward. His eyes burned with murderous intent, a deep growl rumbling from his chest that sounded inhuman.
"What did you do to her?" he snarled, his voice dropping to that dangerous Alpha tone that made everyone’s wolves instinctively submit. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?"
His roar echoed through the ballroom, raw with pain and fury.
Cici clawed at his hand, her face turning blue as she struggled for air. The reality finally seed to dawn on her—he truly looked ready to murder her right there.
Her brothers reacted quickly, prying Xavier’s fingers from Cici’s throat and pulling her behind them for protection.
"Xavier, chill out," Gavin urged, his own Alpha power rising to et Xavier’s. "My sister might just be talking crazy."
Judy White, Cici’s older sister, stepped forward with the protective instinct of pack females. "Even if it were true, you can’t bla Cici without evidence! What if Cecilia couldn’t handle being alone and went looking for action? What if Cici just heard the gossip and that’s why she knows? Maybe Cecilia realized word would get back to you and created this elaborate victim sche to fra my sister!"
I almost laughed at the absurdity. But I remained silent, watching the performance unfold. So people needed the spotlight a little longer before their final bow.
Sure enough, taking her cue from her sister, Cici imdiately transford into the picture of innocence—tears streaming down her cheeks like a broken faucet.
"Xavier, how could I ever do sothing so horrible?" she whimpered, her voice soft and breaking. "My friend saw Cecilia at a hotel, going into a room. Turns out, before she went in, my friend noticed several n going into that sa room. One of them is known for sleeping around and being infected."
She dabbed at her tears like a drama queen. "I wasn’t going to say anything, but she was so cruel earlier."
"Real bonds aren’t about timing—they’re about truth," she said, chin lifted with infuriating pride. "Marriage certificates an nothing if the heart was never in it. What we have is real. She’s the one intruding on what was never hers to begin with."
The sheer shalessness of her logic disgusted everyone in the room. The wives and female Alphas present—veterans of dealing with howreckers on the regular—looked like they wanted to spit in her face. How could anyone be so completely shaless?
Only their reluctance to piss off the Shadow Pack kept them silent.
Xavier’s expression remained ice-cold. "Can you stand behind what you’ve just claid?"
"I swear it!" Cici cried, eyes wide with desperation.
"On the Moon Goddess, on my own life—if I’m lying, may I be rejected. May I die unmated and alone."
She shot a triumphant glance, sure she’d won. I could read it in the tilt of her chin, the way her mouth curled just a little too high on one side.
She thought I had nothing.
No evidence. No witnesses.
And after what I’d been through last night, how could I possibly have gotten proof?
Her eyes flicked over , and that smile deepened.
Even if Xavier was losing it in this mont, even if the crowd turned against her for a hot second—she believed it wouldn’t last. That he would co back to her. That once the dust settled, I’d be the one left humiliated and discarded.
She thought she’d won.
And maybe that overconfidence was her biggest screwup.
Her willingness to make such a terrible oath caused so in the audience to waver. Mrs. White seized the opportunity to launch into a vicious tirade against , throwing every insult in the book.
Throughout it all, Dora remained suspiciously quiet.
I waited patiently until they had run out of steam. Then, with graceful steps, I moved to the center of the ballroom, my eyes locked on Cici.
"May you rot from the inside out and die horribly," I repeated her words slowly. "You truly don’t believe in karma, do you?"
I reached into my purse, retrieved my phone, and tapped the screen a few tis. Suddenly, Cici’s voice filled the ballroom:
"Xavier doesn’t want to take your calls... How did you like the guys I arranged for you? Let drop a little secret—they’re not just total freaks, one of them has AIDS... I’ll have them pump you full of more drugs soon to make it interesting..."
"By this ti tomorrow, footage of you getting destroyed by eight animals will be everywhere. The pack will see. The council will see. Your na will be dirt."
Then, softer—almost giddy:
"And while you’re drowning in sha, Xavier and I will be celebrating our engagent announcent. Pack leaders, nobles, high-ranking families... everyone will be there."
"Yes, I stole your man and your position... But my future will be perfect, growing old with Xavier... As for you, you’ll just waste away in misery, hahaha..."
Her maniacal laughter echoed through the hall like sothing straight out of a nightmare.
The White family tried to grab my phone halfway through the recording, but a young male guest got in their way. The room had had enough of their bullying.
When the recording ended, the ballroom fell into shocked silence once again. Most of the guests were blown away by Cici’s evil and shalessness, their disgust extending to Xavier and Dora as well.
Cici’s face had turned ghostly pale. Seeing Xavier’s murderous expression—like he wanted to skin her alive—she cowered behind her brothers.
Suddenly, she pointed a trembling finger at Dora and wailed, "Luna Dora made do it!"
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