A tense silence ensued after Alvira’s outburst; she wanted Elsie to feel burning shame that she revealed her secret to everyone: that she had slept with three men in this very room.
Alvira then begins to give a slow, mocking clap with a wicked smile. “I mean, it could even be more if she had gotten her grubby hands on Kaide!” She shouts when she feels a painful tug from Rygan, who channels an order for her to stand down.
“Calm down, Alvira; you’re drunk,” he warns her, but she ignores Rygan's warning.
Maybe it was the wine that was giving her drink courage, but she didn’t back down. “Why should I sit down when the cause of all our troubles is right there? She is a liar, and nothing she says should be believed,” she points out to Elise.
But instead of seeing the reaction she was waiting for, Elise's lips stretched out into an amused smirk, and as she was enjoying Alvira drunkenly humiliating herself, it was like a dam of anger had burst into Alvira's emotions as she stalked over to Elise.
“Why are you smiling? You are supposed to be embarrassed and crying; just admit how wrong you were. You are supposed to be cowering just like you did hiding behind my back while fucking my betrothed anytime you had the chance; you did me wrong; you made me this way?” This time, Elise's smile disappeared.
Disgusted that Alvira dared to say Elise should be the one pleading for her forgiveness after all the things that Kaide and Alvira did to her to hide their secrets.
“Is that what you say to comfort yourself? Aren't you the one who is supposed to be begging and kneeling to me for forgiveness after all you did?” She asks Alvira scoffs and begins to laugh like a madwoman, making a spectacle of herself; she staggers in front of the table, out of her mind, and creates a drunken scene for everyone to witness.
This time Kaide runs to her, holding Alvira and telling her to stop making a huge mess out in the open. "Alvira, stop! Please!” She pulls away from Kaide, going to Elise's table.
“Me? What have I done so wrong when I sacrificed everything for love?” She screams, pushing the plates of food and cups that crashed and broke on the ground.
Hayden and Rygan had both stood up immediately to retaliate and restrain Alvira, but Elise channeled a telepathic message for both of them to stop so that she could handle it herself and made both alphas pause to hear her words.
She stands up, raises the cup of wine still in her hands, and splashes it right on Alvira's face till she is fully doused in it, and not a second later, her hand raises a hard, painful slap to both of Alvira's cheeks that makes her stagger backward in shock and scream.
“Ahhh! Rygan, do you see how she is tormenting me? Don’t you all see? This is who she truly is!” She screams making sure she lets fake tears fall so she will be pitied.
Kaide comes to hold Alvira and says, “Stop this, Alvira!” He roars, shaking her shoulders to wake her up. The fear in his eyes, knowing that Elsie could start their torture here right now.
“Does the Blackmoon pack teach their females to be rabid and can’t control themselves with just one cup of wine?” Elise asks, her eyes full of disgust for the pair. But she controls her face once again.
She finally shows that cold yet striking elegance that makes both of them shudder, an eye-opener to Alvira, who begins to recall who she was standing against as the wine effect begins to clear up. They were in a very deep trap now.
“I’d like to share a story with you all,” Elise says instead, gaining back the room's full attention. “I wandered around the moon city compounds today, ending up in the garden. And to my surprise, I noticed two people there, and I just happened to come across the most juiciest and amusing conversation, scandalous in fact." She starts.
This time Kaide looked back at her in shock; she had heard everything they were talking about in the garden, which meant she might know about Alana and Kayla, their daughter!
The look of horror spreads through Alvira's face as she feels the drunkenness. “Yeah, you wouldn't,” she stutters to Elise, who knows she has the upper hand in this situation.
She was holding on to a secret that would break and be their death on the spot. *Then you shouldn’t have provoked me... Would you like to tell him, or should I? She dared them. The whole hall was in utter guttural silence.
“What do you want?” Kaide mutters through his teeth. He knew Elise had the power to break them; one word from her would be the final nail to their coffin and prove everything that Rygan had been suspicious of.
“Kneel and beg for forgiveness for what you have done, for how you both accused me of killing your child Alvira when you were never pregnant, and for how I was attacked falsely because I learned both of your secrets... And who left me in those woods to die? Kneel now,” she says coldly.
Now Rygan’s gaze began to form from confusion to shock, stunned that they both weren’t fighting back the accusations, but instead, they both kneeled to Elise in defeat. "Lower,” she snarled at both of them till they groveled with their faces planted on the ground.
“We are sorry; I shouldn’t have done that to Elise; I should have used your trust and broken you down; I should have said the truth, so please,” Kaide mutters.
She feels a calm hand entwined with hers. She looks at Hayden with nothing but pride on his face. She knows there are will cards to play, and this was the beginning of making their lives miserable.
With that look of sensual promise and pride from Hayden, she knew her work here was done for now; she wouldn’t make their pain fast and quick but make them suffer. “This time, you will fully learn the truth, and you will truly be sorry for what you did to me; they are all yours,” she mutters in Rygan’s direction.
With no words left, she leaves the hall with another pack following right behind until only Rygan, Kaide, and Alvira are left. Taz wasn’t there because he and other betas in command had gone to scout the compound for everyone's protection.
But before Elise leaves, she turns back with a smirk. "And, oh, you might have felt a sense of justification calling a whore; yet it seems Rygan wasn't giving you enough attention that you went climbing into your own cousin's bed.” Her words make them freeze.
“Stop!” Alvira screamed, but the damage was done as Elise left the hall in a silent victory. While the alpha had barely made a sound, the room echoed with the loud pounding of Kaide and Alvira's hearts.
Now that Rygan was alone with them, Alvira trembled from the intensity of his aura and pheromones; she could barely bring her head up from how heavy she felt. His wrath was one thing they’d prayed to never feel from him.
“What did Elise mean by that?” He mutters, walking closer to them with a deadly, low snarl in his tone.
“No, she meant nothing. Please, Rygan, Alpha!" Alvira pleads, putting both her palms together as she starts to cry and plead.
Kaide, on the other hand, made no sound or move whatsoever; he’d never seen Rygan’s wrath so cold and targeted towards him. Elise had used them, trapping them with no way out. She spilled what she wanted to. Making sure the seed of distrust spreads, destroying their trustworthiness from the inside.
The halls felt too silent and cold, with death looming, and only the echo of someone gaining closer to the halls rang through as the person entered the room—it was Taz. He looked breathless, and his face contorted into confusion at what he was witnessing.
Taz had heard about the commotion from the outside as he walked in, not expecting the scene before him. Kaide wasn’t on the floor anymore but was slammed and pinned to the wall by Rygan, with blood spilling from his lips and head and one of his arms already fractured.
Alvira's hands clung to Rygan’s legs, begging him to let go of Kaide, who trashed against his alpha hold. But Rygan made no move about letting go or backing down as he roared in anger.
“All this time, you both bettered me. Tell me what you did to Elise!” He growls, Tell me now before I snap both your heads off!” He rages.
And they both knew they were doomed if they didn’t find a way out of this soon. They weren’t going to leave her with their lives. But they both knew there was no way out of this.
There was nowhere to hide.