"You were never supposed to have a family," Seraphine spat, her words laced with venom. "You were meant to be mine, Darius. Mine alone."

A deafening silence hung in the air, thick with tension and disbelief. Brielle's eyes widened, her mind struggling to process the twisted depths of Seraphine's obsession.

"You're deranged," she breathed, her voice laced with a mixture of horror and disgust.

Seraphine's laughter was a hollow, mocking sound that grated on Brielle's nerves like nails on a chalkboard. "Deranged? Perhaps. But at least I'm not the one who betrayed our pack, our laws, by birthing a bastard child."

Darius's grip on Brielle tightened, his muscles coiling with...