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The Cursed Alpha’s Mute Bride – Episode 07
No one in the great hall dared laugh now. Hunter’s arrival had stripped the celebration of its glitter, leaving spilled wine, crushed sugar flowers, and frightened guests beneath the chandeliers. Wren stood at the center with her slate held against her chest, scarcely believing he had come.
Nikolaus recovered from the shock with a sneer. “You crossed our border to support this accusation?” he asked. “She trespassed on your land. Whatever story she told you, Alpha Silver, you owe her nothing.”
“She told me nothing,” Hunter replied. “She did not need to.” His gaze rested on the cut beneath Nikolaus’s eye. “I saw three Eclipse wolves surround her. I saw your claws. I heard what you intended to do.”
Whispers spread through the pack. Nikolaus’s companions stood near the rear doors with lowered heads, the bruises from Hunter and Clay still visible. Neither came forward to defend him.
Anneliese’s face flushed. She looked from her fiancé to the guests who had come to celebrate them. Admitting the truth would mean admitting that Nikolaus had abandoned her engagement feast to pursue the sister she despised. Pride won before doubt had a chance.
“Wren must have tempted him,” she said. “She has always resented me. This is another scheme to steal what belongs to me.” Her voice broke at the edge, but the cruelty remained unmistakable.
Wren lowered the slate as if it had become too heavy. Hunter had offered truth, and Anneliese had rejected it without asking a single question. There was no argument strong enough to reach someone determined not to see.
Nikolaus sensed his advantage returning. “Force myself on you?” he said, turning his disgust on Wren. “As if anyone would want a piece of that underdeveloped—”
Hunter moved before the insult was finished. One moment he stood beside Clay; the next his hand was around Nikolaus’s throat, holding him against a stone pillar. The impact rattled the engagement garlands.
“Finish that sentence,” Hunter said quietly. Golden light burned through the silver of his eyes. The vicious energy beneath his control filled the hall, and every weaker wolf bowed instinctively under its weight.
Wren felt the mate bond flare in answer. Fear and gratitude tangled inside her, but she touched Hunter’s sleeve and shook her head. She would not let Nikolaus turn her testimony into a war that could bury the truth beneath blood.
Hunter looked down at her hand. The violence in him receded by a fraction. After one final warning squeeze, he released Nikolaus and stepped back, placing himself close enough that Wren could choose his protection without being hidden behind it.
Anneliese rushed to Nikolaus. “You have gone too far,” she cried, but her fury was aimed at Wren, not the man rubbing his bruised throat. “You humiliated my mate, endangered our alliance, and invited a hostile Alpha into our home.”
The injustice left Wren breathless. She signed that Hunter had come because Nikolaus attacked her, yet Anneliese slapped the slate from her hand. Chalk cracked across the marble.
“It is time to remove this embarrassment from our pack,” Anneliese declared. Several guests murmured agreement, eager to restore the simple order in which Wren was guilty and the celebration could continue.
Wren’s courage faltered. Expulsion was not another kitchen punishment. A wolf without a pack became a rogue, denied shelter, protection, and the right to cross claimed land. Wren did not even have a waking wolf to help her survive.
She looked toward Gertrude. Her stepmother stood before the Alpha’s chair, thumb stroking the smoky stone. Wren expected triumph but saw calculation instead. Hunter’s arrival threatened the curse Gertrude had guarded for years.
“As Alpha of the Wolfhart Pack,” Gertrude began, claiming the authority she had exercised since her husband’s death, “I hereby banish Wren Wolfhart to the woods.” Her voice carried the force of pack law. “From this moment, her name is removed from our protection. She is rogue.”
Pain tore through Wren’s chest. The pack bond had always been faint beneath Gertrude’s spell, but she felt it snap like a cord pulled too tight. Her knees weakened, and a hollow cold spread where the Eclipse wolves’ presence had lived all her life.
Hunter caught her elbow before she fell. His touch steadied her, but Gertrude raised a hand toward the guards. “Do not interfere, Silver. Pack law gives an Alpha the right to cast out a disloyal wolf. Your testimony has been heard. The punishment remains mine.”
