My gut twisted. “Yeah,” I gritted out. “Pretty damn convenient.”
My mind whirred, desperately looking for a solution. Then I caught a familiar face in the crowd.
I didn’t hesitate. “Leo!”
The wiry Moss Stone wolf broke off from the crowd, moving toward us with quick strides. His sharp eyes flicked between me, Judy, and Brynjar. “What can I do?”
“Shadow Claw says the footage was corrupted,” I said. “Any way you can help?”
His lips quirked. “Actually, yes. I can.”
He slipped behind the concierge desk, fingers flying across the keyboard of the hotel’s system. The silence stretched, broken only by Judy’s ragged breaths and Brynjar’s heavy disdain.
Finally, Leo leaned back, triumphant. “Found it. Someone tried to delete the files, but not well enough.” He turned the monitor outward. “Here’s your thief.”
I recognized the Shadow Claw wolves the screen showed, slipping into a corridor, passing items from one bag to another, deliberately planting them in Judy’s workspace. Clear. Undeniable.
A murmur rippled through the lobby.
I turned back to Brynjar, my voice cold steel. “What do you have to say now?”
A snarl slipped out of him as he turned to his pack mates, who shrank under his glare. “Obviously,” he said darkly. “I’ve been deceived. My packmates must have gone behind my back to-“
“Oh, save it,” I snapped.
He clamped his mouth shut, taken aback by the bite in my tone.
“I don’t know what game you think you’re playing, but you accused an innocent Omega for what? To scratch an itch? To prove a point? Do you think what we’re doing here is a game?”
His face darkened, copper eyes blazing. “Watch your tongue-“
“No.” I stepped closer, forcing him back an inch. “You will apologize. Here. Now. To Judy. Or I will make sure every Alpha in this building sees that footage before sunrise.”
His eyes narrowed. “Do you think I give a fuck-“
“And then I’ll send a copy to your Luna,” I added sharply. “I’ve heard she has low tolerance for juvenile bullshit.”
I’d heard stories of their Luna’s ruthlessness, and they made Brynjar seem like a fluffy teddy bear. Obviously, I wasn’t in a million years going to poke a sleeping beast, but the bluff was more than enough to get the job done.
Gasps flared. The crowd pressed closer, waiting.
Brynjar’s jaw worked furiously. His pride warred with the undeniable evidence. At last, he spat the words out like poison. “Forgive me.”
Judy’s chin lifted, her fear burned away by something fiercer. “I don’t forgive you.”
Her voice rang clear, shocking even me. “You’re a playground bully and a coward. The only reason I’m letting this go is respect-for OTS. And for Sera. But on the tournament grounds?” Her eyes blazed. “I won’t hold back.”
The hush that followed was absolute.
Brynjar blinked, thrown off balance. The idea that a “lowly Omega” would stand her ground left him speechless.
Then his lips peeled back in a snarl. “Then I’ll be waiting. And I’ll crush you.”
Judy’s scoff cut through his bluster. “You’d better have the ability to back that up.”
And with that, she turned on her heel and walked out, head held high.
I turned to Maya. “Any chance you can stay back and-“
She nodded before I could even finish the request. “You got it, babe. I’ll settle everything.”
I shot her a grateful smile and turned to Leo. “Thank you.”
He smiled. “It was my immense pleasure.”
With that, I turned on my heel and followed Judy out.
Behind us, the crowd erupted-some in shock, some in admiration, some in barely contained glee at seeing
Shadow Claw humbled twice in the same day.
But me? I felt something else.
Pride. Fierce, unshakable pride.
For Judy. For OTS. For the quiet tide of change that had begun to roll in, whether wolves like Brynjar wanted it or not.
OF POISON
SERAPHINA’S POV
I could tell Judy was still wound tight long after we’d left the hotel.
She walked stiffly beside me all the way to OTS, her jaw clenched, shoulders hunched as though Brynjar’s shadow still lingered at her back.
“Come on,” I said gently, catching her wrist before she could retreat into the building and probably wallow in the dorms. “We’re not ending the night like this.”
Her wide, uncertain eyes flicked to mine. “Sera, I-“
“No arguments.” I tugged her down a side street, toward a small caf? that stayed open late for students and guests alike.
The glow from inside spilled across the pavement, warm and welcoming. “You need something sweet after a bitter experience like that.” I shot her a smile, which she reluctantly returned. “My treat.”
We slid into a booth by the window. The scent of baked bread and caramel clung to the air, calming and indulgent.
Judy hesitated only a moment before ordering a slice of chocolate cake so rich it looked sinful. I went with my actual favorite dessert-strawberry cheesecake, light enough to keep the heaviness of the evening at bay.
For a while, we ate in silence. The sugar did its work, loosening the knot of tension between us.
When Judy finally set her fork down, her hands shook faintly.
“Thank you,” she murmured, not looking at me. “If you hadn’t shown up tonight-if you hadn’t stepped in- that would have gone horribly wrong. Brynjar would’ve had his way, and I would’ve been disqualified.
Everything I worked for would’ve been gone.”
I hated how right she was. No one was standing up for her when we walked in. Sure, Brynjar was an asshole, but he held more power than Judy, and that was what people only ever really saw.
I leaned forward, placing a hand over hers. “You held your own in there; that was pretty impressive.”
She scoffed self-deprecatingly. “I was terrified,” she confessed. “I was truly considering cutting my losses and just accepting the blame so that the nightmare would end.” She shook her head. “That bastard really had me believing it was a mistake to have ever joined OTS”
“Hey,” I said softly, but firmly enough to hold her gaze. “You fought hard to be here. You earned this chance, Judy. Don’t let anyone-least of all a brawn-for-brains like Brynjar-make you believe otherwise.
Her throat bobbed as she swallowed, eyes glistening. “My family…we’ve never had much. Omegas in our pack are always expected to bow, to serve, to fade into the background. But if I perform well in this tournament, even if I don’t win, it could change things for them. Give us a little more standing. Maybe my younger brother won’t get pushed around at training. Maybe my mother won’t have to work herself to the bone.”
Her words pierced me, sharp and familiar. That desperate hope, I knew it intimately. “Then we’ll make sure you get that chance,” I said quietly. “No one is taking it from you.”
She looked up then, and for the first time since Brynjar, the faint smile that flickered across her lips was genuine.
But it didn’t last. Her expression grew conflicted, and she pulled her hand out of mine, twisting her napkin between her fingers.
“I need to confess something.”
I tilted my head, leaning back. “Go on.”
“Back when you first arrived,” she said haltingly, “I thought you didn’t deserve to be here. I thought you’d gotten in because of connections-because of Lucian, or the Lockwoods, or the Blackthornes. Jessica and her group…” She hesitated, guilt flashing across her face. “They made you out to be arrogant. Useless. And I believed them.”
A familiar sting cut through me, but I kept my face neutral.
“But after today,” she rushed on, “after seeing how you handled Brynjar, after watching the way people listened to you… I realized they were wrong. You-” She faltered, cheeks flushing. “You draw people in without even trying. You effortlessly command respect. Even without a wolf form. That’s…magnetic. And rare.”
Heat rose to my cheeks despite myself. Compliments still sat strangely on my shoulders, especially when they caught me off guard. “Judy…”
She shook her head firmly. “I mean it. You saved me tonight. And you didn’t even have to.
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