Chapter 16 The Loyal Beast’s Defiance

The grand hall pulsed with tension, thick as smoke. Silver chandeliers bathed the room in cold light, reflecting off polished marble floors. Every member of the Silverfang Pack stood silent, frozen mid-celebration.

Damian Voss stood at the center, wine glass in hand, a wolfish grin curving his lips. “You’ve lost your touch, Selena,” he drawled, voice smooth as venom. “The Luna who once commanded armies now trembles before whispers in the dark.”

Selena’s jaw tightened. “Watch your tone, Damian.”

He chuckled, swirling his drink lazily. “Watch my tone? I’m only stating what they already whisper.” He turned to the gathered pack, his crimson eyes glinting. “A Luna who hides behind broken Omegas and fading legends—tell me, is this the strength of your reign?”

A ripple of discomfort ran through the wolves. None dared to speak.

Aiden stood near the back, his head bowed, hands clenched. The words seared through him like acid. Broken Omega. He had heard it all his life—but hearing it from Damian, aimed at her, twisted something inside him.

Selena’s composure cracked for only a heartbeat before her mask returned. “I don’t need to prove my strength to a usurper,” she said coldly.

Damian smirked. “Then perhaps your pet should prove his?”

Laughter spread through the room. Damian’s gaze flicked toward Aiden. “Tell me, little Omega, what does loyalty feel like when your Luna uses you as her shadow? Do you bark when she commands—or do you only whimper?”

The crowd’s laughter grew sharper. Aiden’s ears burned. He saw the mockery, the gleam of cruelty in Damian’s eyes. He could have endured it—he had endured worse. But then Damian stepped closer to Selena, fingers brushing her arm in blatant possession.

“Maybe I should remind her what real strength—what a real Alpha—feels like.”

Something inside Aiden snapped.

The laughter died instantly when the low growl echoed through the hall. It wasn’t Damian’s.

It came from the boy everyone called weak.

Aiden’s chest rose and fell, his silver-mark glowing faintly beneath his shirt. His eyes—usually soft and submissive—now shimmered with quiet defiance. “Enough,” he said, voice steady.

Damian turned, incredulous. “Did the Omega just speak to me?”

“I said,” Aiden repeated, stepping forward, “enough.”

The crowd drew back instinctively. Aiden’s tone held something unfamiliar—something primal.

Damian’s smirk faltered, just for a second. “Careful, boy. You’re addressing your Alpha.”

Aiden’s lips curved slightly. “No. I’m addressing a man who’s forgotten what being one means.”

Gasps rippled through the pack. Selena froze. Her heart hammered in her chest. What is he doing?

Damian’s expression darkened. “Watch yourself.”

Aiden didn’t stop. “You mock loyalty because you’ve never understood it. You talk about power, but you use fear to hold your pack. You call yourself Alpha—but a true Alpha doesn’t break what he should protect.”

Damian moved in a blur. His hand closed around Aiden’s throat, slamming him against a pillar. “You think your words make you brave?” he snarled.

Aiden’s feet dangled above the ground. Pain shot through his neck—but his gaze never wavered. “No,” he rasped. “They make me free.”

For a moment, something wild flickered in Damian’s eyes—confusion, anger, maybe even recognition. Then his grip tightened.

Selena stepped forward. “Damian—stop!”

But before she could reach them, light burst from Aiden’s chest. Silver, pure and blinding.

Damian staggered back, snarling as the glow burned his hand. The mark on Aiden’s skin pulsed—wolf and moon entwined, radiating defiance.

Every wolf in the hall felt it—the undeniable surge of power, primal and ancient. The Omega everyone mocked now radiated the presence of a creature older than Alpha law.

Aiden stood tall, his breath steady. “You can strike me,” he said softly. “You can break my bones, Damian. But I’ll never kneel to cruelty.”

Damian bared his teeth. “You don’t know what you’ve just done.”

“Maybe not,” Aiden replied, his voice calm. “But neither do you.”

The silver light faded slowly, leaving the hall trembling with silence. Selena looked at Aiden as if seeing him for the first time—not a servant, not a pity—but as something more. Something dangerous.

The pack whispered among themselves, their certainty cracking.

Damian straightened, his calm returning, but his eyes were no longer amused—they were cold, furious. “You’ve made a mistake, Omega. You’ve chosen the wrong side.”

Aiden met his gaze without flinching. “There’s only one side that matters—the right one.”

Damian’s lips curled into a slow, cruel smile. “Then you’ll die on it.”

Before anyone could react, the hall doors slammed open with a deafening bang.

A scout stumbled in, breathless, eyes wide with terror. “Alpha—Luna—there’s movement in the forest! Wolves… hundreds of them! Not ours!”

The air thickened with dread. Damian’s smirk faded. Selena turned toward the doors, silver aura flaring to life.

Aiden felt the mark on his chest pulse again—stronger this time, almost alive.

He looked toward the moonlit windows, the faint sound of distant howls echoing across the mountains.

The war wasn’t coming.

It had already begun.

Cliffhanger: The forest is alive with enemy howls, and Aiden’s defiance has awakened something ancient. Now, both Damian and Selena must decide—who truly commands the Loyal Beast?