Daphne's POV
My mother's face changed before my eyes. The fury that had been burning there moments before flickered and dimmed, replaced by something colder. More calculating. "What did you just say?"
"You heard me clearly." I lifted my chin, refusing to let her see any weakness. "I don't need Kaelen Vance. There are plenty of other Alphas out there. Better ones."
The words rolled off my tongue with more confidence than I actually felt. Deep down, my mother's panic was starting to infect me like a slow-spreading poison. Her terror about losing our connection to Ironfang, her certainty that I had destroyed our family's future, was beginning to crack my resolve.
What if she wasn't wrong? What if Kaelen was actually starting to develop real feelings for that pathetic girl? What if all the pain and humiliation I'd witnessed were just temporary setbacks before he fell completely under her spell?
