Before I could respond, Talia breezed into the room. Her presence, unwelcome as it was, felt like salt in a raw wound. She looked between us, her lips curling into a faint, smug smile.
“You need to calm down, Sera,” she said, her tone dripping with condescension. “Kael doesn’t need an overreacting mother. He needs someone strong.”
Her words ignited a fire in me. I turned on her, my voice shaking with suppressed rage. “You have no right to speak about my son,” I hissed, my wolf clawing beneath the surface, desperate to be unleashed.
Talia took a step back, startled by my tone, but Lucian stepped in, his hand raised in warning. “Enough, both of you,” he said coldly.
But I wasn’t finished. My pain, my anger—they wouldn’t be silenced anymore.
The room felt suffocating as tension swirled like a storm, thick and inescapable.
Talia stood smugly before me, her words still hanging in the air like poison. “I just said the truth. Kael needs strength, not a mother who loses her head over every little thing.”
My vision blurred with tears and rage, the weight of her condescension breaking something deep within me. Before I could think, my hand flew up and connected with her cheek. The sharp crack of the slap echoed through the den, freezing everyone in place.
Talia gasped, her hand flying to her reddening cheek. “Did you just—”
“Yes, I did,” I spat, my voice trembling with unbridled fury. “And I’ll do it again if you dare speak about my son like you know anything!”
Lucian was on his feet in an instant, his eyes blazing with anger. His wolf rippled beneath the surface, evident in the hard set of his jaw and the growl in his voice. “How dare you, Seraphina?”
I turned to him, chest heaving, expecting—hoping—for him to finally stand beside me, to defend us. But his next words shattered me.
“How dare you lay a hand on your sister?”
His words struck like a whip, leaving me momentarily stunned. “Sister?” I repeated, my voice cracking. “That’s all you see her as? Not the woman who’s been undermining your mate and disrespecting your family at every turn?”
“Sera—”
“No,” I cut him off, stepping closer, desperate to make him see reason. “I’m your mate, Lucian. Your mate. The woman who bore your child, who has fought for this family every single day. Why are you defending her over me? Over us?”