Chapter 194: The Proff

Camilla’s panic was obvious.

Anyone with sharp instincts could smell it in the air.

Lincy might not be the smartest in the pack, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t trip over the truth. Sometimes the loudest person in the room is the one who accidentally drags secrets into the light.

Then there was Julian.

I felt the shift in him before I even looked at him. His posture tightened. His jaw flexed. He knew exactly how fragile this moment was. If his past with Camilla came out, it wouldn’t just stain his name. It would drag the Hale pack’s honor through the mud.

His eyes found mine.

He knew.

He knew I was the one moving the pieces.

There was no anger in his gaze. No accusation.

Just a flicker of panic.

And something else.

Acceptance.

He understood they owed me this. If I chose to tear the truth open in front of everyone, he had no right to stop me.

Before I fell for Lewis, my original plan had been simple. Expose Julian and Camilla together. Let them face the consequences of the betrayal they buried.

But after I became Lewis’s mate, things changed.

I no longer wanted to burn everything down. Not at the cost of the Hale pack’s name.

Using Silas as the trigger wasn’t mercy for Julian. It was strategy. It was protecting Lewis’s territory while still settling my debt.

“Ms. Lincy,” Camilla said softly, playing the gentle bride again. “I know you have feelings for Yenick. But this bond is already decided between two families. If you continue causing trouble, I’ll have to call security.”

Her tone was calm. Controlled.

But her fingers were trembling slightly at her side.

Silas stepped forward immediately at her signal. His men moved with him, forming a wall around Lincy.

To the guests, it looked reasonable. A troublemaker being escorted out of a ceremony. Order being restored.

The Hudson family glanced at Grant with quiet contempt.

If not for Grant’s open favoritism toward Lincy, an illegitimate daughter like her would never have been allowed to stand in a hall like this.

“Grant,” someone muttered, “you should take your daughter home. This is a celebration, not a stage for her drama.”

“Yes, yes,” Grant said quickly. “My failure as a father. I’ll take her away right now.”

Fiona stepped forward, placing herself protectively beside Camilla.

“Ms. Ashbourne, I haven’t known Camilla long,” she said firmly, “but she is kind and respectful. I’m certain she would never do something like this.”

See?

Camilla always knew how to move people.

Just a few soft words, and she could twist the mood of the entire room.

But this time, I had already closed the exits.

I had sent Lincy Silas’s photo earlier.

Just as Silas reached for her arm, Lincy suddenly shouted,

“He’s the adulterer!”

The hall froze.

Julian’s face changed.

The tension in him snapped into stunned disbelief. He stared at Lincy, trying to read whether she was bluffing or truly knew something.

Camilla’s composure cracked.

Her fingers tightened around the hem of her gown. I saw it clearly. That small, desperate grip.

The affair with Julian was dangerous.

But the affair with Silas?

That was the secret she had buried deep, where she thought no one would ever find it.

All eyes turned to Silas.

He didn’t flinch.

His expression was cold. Detached. A servant standing in a storm.

His presence carried a quiet hostility, like someone used to surviving in the shadows.

“Ms. Ashbourne,” he said in his gravelly voice, “this is not the place for wild accusations. I am just a subordinate. How could I ever be worthy of Ms. Morrigan?”

Camilla recovered quickly.

Too quickly.

She let out a small, mocking laugh.

“If you’re going to invent stories,” she said to Lincy, “at least make them believable. Why would I abandon a Hudson heir for a mere servant? Is he handsome? Does he have status?”

A few guests nodded.

Silas wasn’t ugly. But he wasn’t the type anyone would imagine standing beside Camilla.

Even Yenick scoffed.

“Lincy,” he snapped, “haven’t you embarrassed yourself enough?”

Grant stormed toward her, fury burning in his eyes.

“Come home with me right now! Haven’t you shamed us enough?”

But Lincy didn’t shrink back this time.

Lincy twisted out of Grant’s grip like smoke slipping through fingers and ran straight toward Gareth Hudson.

Her movements were messy, desperate but there was something fierce in her scent. A kind of reckless courage.

“Mr. Hudson,” she shouted, stopping right in front of him, “I’m not lying. If you let this woman into your family, the Hudson pack will become everyone’s joke.”

The word pack hung heavy in the air.

Gareth’s face darkened, but he didn’t raise his voice. A true elder never needed to. His authority settled over the hall like pressure before a storm.

“Lincy,” he said slowly, “you know I’ve always treated you kindly. But today is a bonding ceremony between two families. This is not the time for wild accusations. Do you understand?”

“I understand,” she said, chest rising fast. “And I’m not making this up.”

“Then where is your proof?” Gareth asked. “You cannot challenge a bride’s honor without evidence.”

“I have proof!”

Camilla’s composure faltered for the briefest second.

I saw it.

A flicker in her eyes. A tightening of her shoulders.

She had always been careful with Silas. Always met him in shadows. Always moved like someone who knew hunters were watching.

Where did Lincy get anything?

Lincy, on the other hand, looked strangely calm now. Like she had finally stepped into her own skin.

Yenick stared at her, his jaw hard.

“Do you or don’t you?” he demanded.

He didn’t care about Camilla’s past before him. What he couldn’t tolerate was disloyalty while she stood beside him in a public bond.

That was something no Alpha could swallow.

Camilla immediately switched tactics. Her eyes glistened. Her voice softened.

“I didn’t, Yenick. You know how Ms. Ashbourne is. She would do anything to ruin our ceremony. Please… you have to believe me.”

Yenick might not have known Camilla well, but he knew Lincy’s temperament.

Still, he tried to salvage what was left of dignity.

“Lincy,” he said tightly, “stop. If you continue, all three packs will lose face.”

Lincy let out a sharp laugh.

“Three packs? The only one losing face is you! You almost accepted another man’s heir as your own, and you’re still standing there smiling? You think I came here empty-handed? Then look!”

The lights flickered.

The large screen behind the ceremony stage came alive again.

A video filled it.

Under a dim streetlamp, Camilla stood pressed against Silas. Their bodies close. Their mouths unmistakably locked.

No shadows to hide behind.

No angle to deny.

The hall went dead quiet.

Even the children stopped whispering.

Julian looked like someone had drained the blood from his body.

Wait wasn’t she supposed to be entangled with him?

He looked from the screen to Camilla, confusion twisting into something uglier.

She told him she loved him. That she chose him.

And now this.

Even if he didn’t truly love her, seeing her claim devotion while kissing another man must have shattered whatever pride he had left.

He probably replayed every memory in his head. Every choice he made. Every time he defended her.

But none of that mattered to me anymore.

He had chosen.

And this was the result.

Yenick turned slowly toward Camilla.

His gaze was no longer confused.

It was cold.

Predatory.

Camilla opened her mouth to speak, tears already gathering at the corners of her eyes.

“Yenick, I ”

“No.”

Just one word.

His scent changed. The calm groom vanished. In his place stood a male whose pride had just been publicly challenged.

And in pack culture, humiliation was worse than pain.

The ceremony music still played softly in the background, absurd and out of place.

Camilla’s hands trembled.

For the first time that night, she looked truly afraid.

And this?

This was only the beginning.

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