MARIA

I was dumbfounded the moment the noise erupted from the hallway.

"Fire! Fire!"

The shout rang through the corridor, loud and frantic, followed by the pounding of hurried footsteps. For a split second, my heart stopped. Fire? Here? The air didn’t smell of smoke, but the panic in their voices was enough to make my chest tighten.

Instinct took over.

Noah.

Even if there truly was a fire outbreak, even if the entire building was about to go up in flames, I needed to get him out first. Without thinking, I pushed past Anabel and stepped fully into the room, my eyes immediately searching for him.

And then I saw him.

He was on the ground.

Unconscious.

My breath hitched.

For a moment, everything inside me went cold. Was it his voice I heard earlier? The weak whisper that called my name? Had he been trying to reach me?

I took a step toward him, panic rising in my throat, but suddenly Anabel shoved me aside. The force caught me off guard and I stumbled a little before steadying myself. She dropped to her knees beside him, her movements sudden and dramatic.

He wasn’t moving.

He wasn’t responding.

And before I could even process what I was seeing, people began flooding into the hallway, their footsteps heavy, their voices overlapping. The room filled quickly, bodies pressing near the doorway.

Then Anabel started crying.

Not just crying—wailing.

The sound sliced through the noise like a blade.

I froze, completely puzzled.

What exactly was going on?

Just moments ago, she had insisted he was fine. She had told me to leave. She had looked irritated, composed. Now she was shaking, sobbing, clutching at him as if the world had ended.

Why was she suddenly crying like something terrible had happened?

My head spun.

"Why did you do this?"

Her voice rang out sharply, breaking through my thoughts. It felt like a slap, even before the meaning registered.

I blinked.

She turned toward me, her eyes glossy with tears, accusing, blazing.

"Do you plan on killing him?"

The words hit me so hard I couldn’t breathe.

Kill him?

I stood there, stunned into stillness. My mouth parted slightly, but no sound came out. I couldn’t even form a coherent thought. It was as if the floor beneath me had vanished.

"I don’t know what game you’re playing, Maria," she continued, her voice trembling as she gently shook Noah’s shoulder, as though trying to wake him. The tenderness in her movements made her look believable. Convincing. "But you could have spared Noah out of it."

Game?

Spared him?

Her words swirled around me, distorted and unreal. I tried to make sense of them, tried to piece together what she was implying, but nothing aligned.

What exactly was she trying to do?

I glanced at Noah again. He was still unconscious. Still unmoving.

Had something happened while I wasn’t here?

The murmurs in the crowd began to grow louder, thicker, heavier. I could see their lips moving, their expressions changing, fingers subtly pointing, but it was like I was underwater. The sounds dulled. The noise became a distant hum.

I couldn’t hear any of it.

All I could focus on was the confusion clawing at my mind.

What was happening?

Why was she twisting this?

I replayed the last few minutes in my head. I had only come to retrieve something I forgot. That was all. She had blocked the door. She had insisted he was fine. And now....Now he was on the ground, and she was accusing me.

My heart pounded violently in my chest.

I wanted to speak. I wanted to deny it. To demand answers. But my thoughts refused to line up. I felt disoriented, as if the entire room had shifted and I was the only one who hadn’t been informed.

I was still trapped in that spiral of confusion when I heard it.

Footsteps.

Heavy.

Synchronized.

Powerful.

The sound cut cleanly through the chaos.

And then their scents hit me.

Strong. Familiar. Commanding.

My body reacted before my eyes did. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

The Quadruplet.

I didn’t need to look up to know it was them. The air itself seemed to change when they entered. Conversations faltered. The crowd parted instinctively, respect and fear woven into every movement.

My stomach dropped.

My heart skipped painfully against my ribs.

This was bad.

Very bad.

"What’s going on here?"

Their voices came at once, layered together in a chorus that carried authority without effort.

The room fell almost completely silent.

I swallowed hard.

For the first time since the shouting began, the reality of the situation truly settled over me. Noah was unconscious. Anabel was crying. The crowd was watching. And now, the most powerful men in the pack were standing here, demanding answers.

My throat felt dry.

I slowly lifted my gaze.

Everything suddenly felt like it was balancing on a knife’s edge.

Before I could gather my scattered thoughts, before I could even open my mouth to defend myself properly, Anabel suddenly rose to her feet.

Her movement was abrupt, dramatic.

She pointed her trembling finger straight at me.

"She did it!" she cried out, her voice cracking perfectly at the edges. "Maria did all this. She made Noah this way!"

Her tears flowed freely down her cheeks, glistening under the hallway lights, each drop falling like proof of her innocence and my supposed guilt. The crowd gasped collectively, and I felt every pair of eyes shift toward me with renewed accusation.

My chest tightened.

She bent down again immediately, cradling Noah’s upper body as though he were something fragile and precious. She held him tightly, possessively, as if the entire world could collapse but as long as she had him in her arms, nothing else mattered.

"Call the pack healer, brothers!" she sobbed desperately. "Nothing must happen to my Noah!"

My Noah.

The words pierced deeper than I expected.

A tiny pang shot through my chest, sharp and uncomfortable. But I pushed it away instantly. This wasn’t the time to dwell on emotions. This wasn’t the time to analyze why that phrase hurt.

I needed to clear my name.

"Alphas, I didn’t do anything! I..."

My words were cut off abruptly.

Davian’s hand struck my chin with such force that my head snapped to the side. Pain exploded across my jaw, the same spot that had already suffered earlier. My vision blurred for a second as a metallic taste filled my mouth.

"Are you saying that my sister is lying?" he demanded, his eyes blazing with fury.

I forced myself to look back at him despite the sting. "I..."

"Shut up!" Damien’s voice thundered next, colder, sharper. "How dare you call my sister a liar in front of a crowd? Do you have a death wish?"

The words slammed into me just as hard as the slap had.

I swallowed painfully.

"I’m not calling her a liar, I’m just saying..."

"Allow me to explain, this wasn’t what happened..." I tried again, gathering every ounce of courage I had left.

But I never got to finish.

Adrien’s palm collided with the exact same spot on my face.

The impact sent a ringing sound through my ears. My cheek burned violently, heat spreading outward, my skin throbbing with humiliation more than pain. My head tilted slightly from the force, and I had to steady myself to avoid falling.

The crowd watched.

No one intervened.

No one questioned.

They all stared at me with that same look, disappointment, disgust, certainty.

As if I had dared to lie to save myself.

As if I was shameless enough to fabricate a story in front of everyone.

But I wasn’t lying.

The liar was their sister.

I looked from one brother to another, searching desperately for even a flicker of doubt in their expressions. For hesitation. For the slightest crack in their blind trust.

There was none.

Only anger.

Only judgment.

I opened my mouth again, even though my courage was already trembling.

I was still trying to find the right words when another voice cut through the tension.

Clear.

Cold.

Authoritative.

"Lock Maria up in the dungeon. We will decide how to punish her later."

Aidan.

He didn’t even look at me.

Not once.

His words were delivered without hesitation, without pause, as though he had already reached his conclusion the moment Anabel pointed at me.

My heart stopped.

The dungeon.

For a second, I thought I had misheard him.

"Call the pack healer," he added firmly, his focus entirely on Noah.

I froze.

Completely.

The hallway felt smaller suddenly, suffocating. The air grew heavy, pressing down on my lungs. My cheek still burned from the slaps, but the ache in my chest overshadowed everything.

He didn’t ask me what happened.

He didn’t give me a chance to explain.

He didn’t even look at me.

The same man who had held me so tightly earlier. The same man who had whispered possessive words against my lips. The same man who had claimed I belonged to him.

Now he was sending me to the dungeon like I was nothing.

Like I was disposable.

The murmurs began again, louder this time.

"She deserves it."

"I knew she was dangerous."

"Trying to kill an Alpha..."

The words crawled over my skin like insects.

I stood there, unable to move, unable to process how quickly everything had turned against me.

Just moments ago, I had been confused.

Now I was condemned.

My throat tightened painfully, but I refused to cry.

Not here.

Not in front of them.

I lifted my gaze one last time toward the Quadruplets.

They looked at me like I was already guilty.

Like the verdict had been passed.

And I realized something in that moment that hurt more than any slap.

No matter what I said...

No matter how loudly I protested...

They would always choose her.