Chapter 37: A much worse punishment

Dorian kept his cold gaze pinned directly on Samantha. With Alyssa balanced on his lap, he played gently with her hair, his other hand caressing her waist and stroking the bare skin beneath her cropped top.

His expression, however, was pure fury. His sixth sense had never failed him; he knew with absolute certainty that Samantha was the one behind the assassination and the kidnapping.

Witnessing the naked terror on her face right now openly confirmed the truth, sending him into a simmering, unbridled rage.

Samantha couldn’t tear her eyes away from Alyssa. She looked like she had really seen a ghost. How the hell was the brat still alive?

Behind her, Seth and Reynold kept their faces blank, but inside, they were completely dumbstruck, wondering how Arrow failed to kill Alyssa.

"I asked you a question, Samantha!" Dorian’s voice snapped like a whip, sending a tremor through the entire room.

"I–I..." Samantha stuttered, desperately trying to pull her composure together. She swallowed thickly, forcing her mouth to move. "N–nothing. Nothing is wrong."

"Are you sure?" Dorian probed cruelly. "You seem shocked to see Alyssa."

"No," she lied quickly, her eyes wide and frantic as she shook her head. "I’m not surprised to see her. I–I don’t know why I reacted that way."

She tried to force a smile, but her lips wouldn’t even twitch. Her carefully laid plans were crashing down before her eyes, and she was powerless to stop it.

Dorian watched her spin out for a moment longer, his eyes darkening dangerously. He sat up suddenly, softly caressing Alyssa’s waist.

"Stand up, Alyssa," he murmured.

Shivering from his warm breath, Alyssa slowly rose. Dorian stood up with her, stepped to the side, and gently lowered her back down into it.

Then, he walked around the desk, his hands thrust casually into his pockets. He looked completely calm, but everyone in the room knew this was merely the silence before the storm.

"Reynold, tell me," he began flatly. "What was the main reason I was supposed to marry your daughter?"

Reynold shot up from his seat, trying his best to hide the sudden surge of intimidation as Dorian slowly stalked toward him.

He cleared his throat, his hands fidgeting. "To expand the Northern borders," he replied, keeping his voice as steady as possible. "And to form a lasting alliance between both our packs."

Dorian stopped just a few meters away, his cold eyes locking onto Reynold’s. "Is that all?" he barked.

Reynold quickly scrambled to continue. "And to protect the Bennington pack from the attacks of the soulless rogues."

Dorian moved again, striding forward until he stood directly in front of Reynold, his massive height completely towering over the shaken Alpha.

"Are you sure that is all, Reynold?" he growled deeply.

Reynold lowered his eyes, unable to hold eye contact. He held his ground and gave a stiff nod. "That’s all, Alpha Dorian. Those were the terms the court council gave for your union with my daughter."

"So it has absolutely nothing to do with the crumbling debts your pack has slipped into?"

Reynold’s head snapped up so fast the joints in his neck popped loudly. In that single, tense second, his emotions broke, and the raw panic on his face completely gave him away.

"You really thought I would let you marry into my pack just to put your worthless hands on my wealth?" Dorian continued, his voice dropping to absolute zero. "Did you really take me for a fool, Reynold?"

He turned away from the broken Alpha, stepping directly into Samantha’s space, her eyes wet with tears of humiliation.

The moment she caught his gaze, she desperately reached out to touch his arm.

"Dorian," she whispered.

​A single, lethal glare from him made her flinch, instantly snatching her hand back to her side.

"I had no issues with you, Samantha," he muttered. "I know it was your father who kept pressuring the council into choosing you as my wife."

Reynold took a frantic step forward, shaking his head. "Alpha Dorian, that’s not true..."

"Utter one more word and I will have you torn apart!" Dorian snarled viciously.

Reynold slunk back to his former spot, his head dropping low as Dorian ruthlessly exposed every single one of his hidden motives.

Dorian turned his full fury back to Samantha. "One of the mistakes you made was falling for me in the first place, knowing there would never be anything between us. I deliberately delayed our wedding for these five years because I didn’t want to believe the rumors about your father..."

"Dorian, I can explain..."

"Be quiet!" he snapped, the sheer volume of his voice vibrating the walls. "When I confirmed that your father indeed wanted this marriage to get his hands on the wealth of the North, I still wouldn’t have held it against you. But hiring an assassin to kidnap Alyssa..."

Samantha’s head snapped up, her eyes widening in absolute horror. The last thing she ever expected was for Dorian to actually know the truth.

"Dorian, I didn’t..."

"Don’t you fucking lie to me!" Dorian snarled.

"I’m telling you the truth!" she shrieked, her hands trembling violently by her sides. "I don’t know what you’re talking about! I didn’t hire any assassins. You can’t accuse me without proof!"

Dorian laughed suddenly, a dark, menacing sound completely devoid of amusement.

"You want proof?" he muttered. "Fine. I’ll give you the proof you need, but be aware that you have just intensified your punishment."

​Samantha panicked. Her heart pounded erratically against her ribs as she watched Dorian turn away. Then a sickening realization hit her; had she just shot herself in the foot by demanding proof?

She stole a desperate glance at Reynold and Seth. They stared back at her coldly, making no move to come to her rescue. Even her father, the very man who had put the idea into her head in the first place, looked away, leaving her to take the fall alone.

"Wait!" she cried out, her voice turning shrill and uneven. "I’ll tell you the truth! Please, Dorian... forget about the proof. It’s true. I hired the Shadow shifter."

Dorian slowly turned back around, a cold smirk playing on his lips. He didn’t actually have any proof. All he had was his sixth sense, yet Samantha had swallowed the bait and confessed entirely on her own.

​Now, it was time to uncover the rest of her accomplices.

"I know you’re not smart enough to pull off something like that on your own," he muttered, stepping closer. "Tell me who helped you."

[Don’t you dare, Samantha!] Seth’s voice suddenly snarled directly inside her mind through the mind-link. [You promised to keep my name out of it!]

Samantha shut her eyes, blocking him out. Then her father’s voice came next, cold and uncaring. [You better tell him you worked alone, you whore! Don’t you dare drag your brother and me into this!]

Samantha clenched her fists until her nails bit into her palms, violently cutting the mind link to silence them both. It broke her heart that neither of them were willing to stand by her.

Taking a deep, ragged breath, she opened her eyes and looked up into Dorian’s lethal gaze.

"No one helped me," she said, her voice hollow. "I did it all on my own."

Dorian didn’t believe a single word. He knew Reynold and Seth had a hand in it, but without concrete evidence, he didn’t want to waste another second digging for it.

"The penalty for your actions is death," he continued coldly. "I should kill you right here for attempting to assassinate the future Luna of the North. But that would be far too easy."

A fraction of relief washed over Samantha for a split second, but his next words turned her blood to ice.

"Instead, I will give you a much worse punishment," Dorian said. He turned his eyes to Reynold, his gaze ablaze with pure rage. "Jake, let the council know of the atrocities Reynold and his family have committed."

"Yes, Alpha." Jake stepped forward, his pen scribbling rapidly against the document he held.

"From this moment, I hereby strip Reynold Bennington of his Alpha title. The Bennington pack will cease to exist, and whatever other position he once held is officially null and void."

​"ALPHA DORIAN, PLEASE!" Reynold bellowed, his knees buckling and crashing to the floor, but Dorian merely turned his back on him.

"As for his children, they are hereby demoted to the lowest ranks of the shifter hierarchy," Dorian continued, his voice cracking like thunder through the Conclave. "They are to move into this mansion as low-born slaves, where they will be made to toil and serve until the day they breathe their last. This is my word, and my word is the law!"

The moment Dorian ended his decree, the door banged open.

Six elite Northern guards marched into the Conclave, their presence instantly making the room suffocating. They grabbed Samantha, Seth, and Reynold, and forcefully dragged them out of the room.