"No one refuses the Alpha and lives to speak of it. That night, Harlow Hades learned there is always a first time."
— Murasaki Sumi
021.
All the alarm bells in Seyra’s head went off.
For a moment, she thought she’d misheard. She turned slowly, her hand still inches close to the door.
Every eye in the grand hall was on her.
"Seyra Bruce," Serene repeated, her voice carrying clearly across the silence. "Please come forward."
Seyra didn’t move.
This had to be a mistake. A cruel one. Maybe Astrid had arranged it, some final humiliation to make sure Seyra knew exactly where she stood before crawling back to her tray.
But Astrid was equally shocked.
She stood frozen at the front of the hall, her crimson gown catching the candlelight, her face drained of every ounce of triumph it had held moments ago.
"There must be a mistake," Astrid said, her voice sharp enough to cut through the murmurs rippling across the crowd. "I’m the one being crowned. Not her."
Serene didn’t answer her. She simply looked toward the throne.
Every head in the hall turned with her.
Orin sat unmoving, his mask giving nothing away, but his voice, when it came, filled the entire hall without him needing to raise it.
"There is no mistake," he said. "I chose Seyra Bruce as Lady Royal of Harlow Hades."
The hall erupted into whispers.
"Seyra? The maid?"
"Isn’t that the rejected sister?"
"I thought Astrid was—"
"Silence," Orin ordered, and the whispers died instantly.
Seyra’s heart pounded so hard she thought it might crack her ribs from the inside. She looked toward Astrid, whose hands had curled into fists at her sides, her composure cracking with every second that passed.
"Alpha," Astrid began, forcing her voice into something calm, something pleading. "I don’t understand. I did everything you asked. I visited the shelter, I—"
"You visited the shelter," Orin sneered, "and tried to strike a pup for biting you when you grabbed it without permission."
Astrid’s face went pale.
"I have eyes and ears everywhere in this pack," Orin continued. "Did you think a written report would be the only account I received?"
Seyra’s breath caught.
Isla.
Isla must have told him the truth after all, or maybe someone else had.
Astrid opened her mouth, then closed it again, no clever excuse ready this time.
Orin’s gaze shifted to Seyra, and even through the mask, she felt the full weight of it settle over her.
"Seyra Bruce," he said. "Come forward."
Every instinct in her screamed to run, to bolt through the door behind her and disappear into the night. But hundreds of eyes were on her now, waiting, and Ruth was watching from across the room with something like hope breaking through her grief.
Seyra’s legs felt like they belonged to someone else as she stepped away from the door and began walking toward the platform.
The crowd parted for her, whispers trailing in her wake.
She passed Astrid, whose eyes burned into her with a hatred so raw it nearly stole the breath from her lungs.
She reached the platform and stopped in front of the throne, in front of Orin, in front of everyone who had ever looked at her like she was nothing.
Serene stepped forward, the scroll still in her hands.
"By the will of the Alpha," Serene said, "and before the Moon Goddess, I now name Seyra Bruce as the Lady Royal of Harlow Hades."
The crown, gold and delicate, gleamed under the candlelight as Serene lifted it from its cushion.
Seyra’s whole body went numb.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. She hadn’t wanted this. She had never wanted this.
If she became Lady Royal, she was only putting targets on her back. Astrid wasn’t going to sit back and watch it happen. Her parents wouldn’t either.
And the pack members? They would continue to see her as the rejected silver-haired girl.
She couldn’t become Lady Royal just like that.
Just as Serene was about to place the crown on her head, Seyra moved back.
"Wait!"
Serene’s eyes narrowed.
"I don’t want it," Seyra said.
Serene’s hand froze mid-air, the crown still hovering between them. "You don’t want it?" she repeated, like the words didn’t make sense in her mouth.
"I don’t want it," Seyra said again, louder this time, so the whole hall could hear her clearly.
The murmurs spread through the crowd like fire through dry grass.
"She’s rejecting the crown?"
"Who does she think she is?"
"No one refuses the Alpha."
"She acts like she’s the prize. She’s a nobody."
"Ungrateful little maid."
The insults piled on top of each other, growing louder and angrier, until the whole hall buzzed with judgment. Seyra kept her eyes forward, refusing to let her face show how deeply the words cut.
Orin stood.
The moment he rose from his throne, the entire hall fell silent, the insults dying in everyone’s throats at once.
He stared at Seyra, and she instinctively took a step back, her heart hammering against her ribs.
"Why have you rejected it?" he asked, his voice low.
"I’m not interested, Alpha." Her voice shook, but she forced the words out anyway. "I’d rather remain a maid."
"I am offering you power," Orin said. "Power you seemed to want not long ago."
"I don’t want a power that makes me forget the people I’m supposed to protect."
People gasped.
Seyra lifted her chin and looked him directly in the eye, something no one else in that room would have dared to do.
"Alpha Orin, I told you my friend was murdered, and you told me life is fleeting." Her voice trembled, but she didn’t stop. "So let me ask you something. If you, the Alpha, cannot use your own power to punish murderers, what exactly do you expect a mere maid who just became Lady Royal to do?"
Orin went utterly still.
The temperature in the room seemed to drop, the air growing sharp and cold enough to sting.
"And if you think you’re handing this power to me so I can do it myself," Seyra continued, her voice rising now, "will you sit back and let me? Will your subjects watch a Lady Royal hunt down murderers and simply accept it? Or will they riot because heaven forbid someone weak finally fights back?"
No one moved. Everyone held their breath. They were literally at the edge of their seats.
"Because that’s the truth, isn’t it?" Seyra’s eyes burned with unshed tears, but her voice held steady. "No one cares about the weak here. They get trampled, beaten, discarded, punished the moment they disagree with someone stronger."
She looked around at the hall full of nobles and Alphas in their fine clothes, jewels glittering under the light.
"Is this the kind of kingdom you’ve built, Alpha? One where the powerful protect no one but themselves?"
The silence that followed was suffocating.
Then suddenly, without warning, Seyra’s feet lifted off the ground.
She gasped, her whole body going weightless, the floor disappearing beneath her as the air around her shifted into something so cold and sharp, pressing against her skin like it wanted to freeze her from the inside out.
Serene stepped forward, alarm flashing across her face.
"Alpha, wait—"
But Orin was already gone, and Seyra with him, both of them vanishing from the platform as if they had never been there at all.
For a moment, the people in the grand hall simply stared at the empty space where they had stood.
Then chaos erupted.
Guests shouted over each other, nobles scrambled from their seats, and somewhere near the back, Ruth’s knees gave out beneath her.
She hit the floor hard, her hands flying to her mouth, tears already streaming down her face.
Seyra was going to die.
There was no other explanation.
No one spoke to the Alpha like that and lived to see the sunrise.