Chapter 158 The Weight of Power
Aubrey’s POV
+8 Pearls
Alpha Henry’s aura nketed the courtyard like something tangible, a suffocating pressure that made every werewolf around him draw careful, shallow breaths.
The only sound in the dead silence was the sshing in the pool – Mariana’s frantic thrashing- and her cries, growing higher and sharper with pain.
I caught the flicker of exchanged nces among several visiting alpha leaders from other packs. The fear on their faces said everything. Whatever doubts they’d carried here tonight evaporated in an instant beneath the raw dominance Henry radiated.
Then Mariana’s parents recognized her voice.
“My daughter!”
Her mother tried to rush forward, but her father grabbed her arm, holding her back. Even so, his voice was taut when he addressed Alpha Henry, respectful but strained:
“Alpha… I don’t know what my daughter did, but does she truly deserve a punishment like this?”
Henry turned his gaze on him, and the sheer force of the fury in his eyes made Ruben flinch. He’d dealt with the alpha before, but never had he seen the man – so lofty and untouchable in all their past encounters burn with such visible rage.
Mariana’s cries were weakening, and Ruben swallowed hard before pushing on. “Alpha, the pool is full of wolfsbane. If this goes on much longer, my daughter will die! Alpha-”
“Yes, Henry…” Adelyn came closer, her voice tinged with urgency. “Let’s pull her out first. We can talk afterward.”
But Henry said nothing.
He simply watched Mariana struggle, his cold, unwavering gaze holding her like a predator staring down prey. The alpha pressure in the air froze every muscle in the bystanders‘ bodies – no one dared move.
I could see it clearly: those spective, testing stares that had been aimed at him all night were guttering out one by one. This was Alpha Henry, the leader of the northern werewolves a man who needed no exnation and no proof. His presence alone could crush every trace of doubt.
But the cost of maintaining this kind of pressure was steep. I worried his body couldn’t sustain it.
I tugged lightly at his sleeve. “Alpha… my shoulder really hurts. Can you take me to get it bandaged?”
The wound throbbed with each breath, but I couldn’t risk letting E speed up my healing here in the open
that would reveal far too much.
Henry’s eyes lingered on me for a long moment before he signaled for Perry to take me. He stayed where he was, unmovable, the center of the storm. I couldn’t order him around here, not as an omega, so I followed Perry out.
Just before I turned awaypletely, I saw him begin to walk toward the pool’s edge. Mariana had managed to w her way to the side, clinging to it with both hands. Henry looked down at her from above, his gaze, as cold and impersonal as if she were already dead.
<b>11:11 </b>Sat, 30 Aug.
Chapter 158 The Weight of Power
What was he going to do?
Mariana’s POV
“Alpha… please… pull me out…”
+8 Pearls
The wolfsbane in the water was eating into my skin like acid, and my throat felt as if molten metal had been poured down it. I’d dumped enough of the stuff in here to make that omega suffer for life – but now it was alling back on me.
I thought I might actually die.
But worse than the pain was Alpha Henry’s gaze as he looked down at me
Icy. Empty. As if he were staring at a corpse.
“Alpha… I’m begging you…. save me…”
I reached up toward him, searching for any trace of mercy, but found only a deeper chill in his eyes.
Time seemed to slow to nothing.
Minutes passed. My arms trembled violently from the agony, my grip on the edge slick and weak. I turned my pleading eyes toward my parents – but under his dominance, they couldn’t take a single step.
Then Henry moved.
He raised his foot slowly… and brought it down, hard, on my hand gripping the ledge.
The skin, already blistered and raw, split open under the pressure, sending another wave of white–hot agony through me.
“Ahhh-!” The scream tore out of my throat before I could stop it.
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