He barked the command, and I watched in horror as two warriors stepped forward, their eyes locking on me.
Panic surged through me. My heart pounded, not for myself, but for the life inside me. My baby. I couldn’t let them touch me.
I stepped back, raising my hands in protest. “Don’t! Don’t come any closer.”
But, they didn’t stop.
My throat tightened, and I forced myself to speak louder, my voice breaking. “I’m the wife of the King’s Beta!” I yelled, my words piercing the murmuring crowd.
The warriors hesitated, their eyes flicking between me and Tyler as uncertainty crept into their stances. I used that moment of hesitation to assert myself.
"Don’t touch me!" I growled, my voice hard, commanding, desperate to project strength, though inside I was shaking. My heart pounded in my chest, worry gnawing at my every thought. I had to protect my baby.
The room fell into an eerie silence. Tension crackled like electricity in the air as all eyes locked on me. Tyler stood across from me, his jaw clenched, disbelief and fury twisted across his face. It was clear he still thought I was Liana.
He scoffed, his lips curling into a sneer. “I never knew you could be such a bitch, Liana.” The venom in his voice sent a shiver down my spine. “And the King’s Beta is just as cheap as you, stealing someone else’s mate. You disgust me.” He spat the word like it was dirt in his mouth.
My blood boiled. How dare he insult Edwin!
“Take that back,” I growled, stepping forward, my hands clenched into fists at my sides. I felt the fury rising like a wave inside me, and it took everything in me not to lash out then and there.
Tyler’s eyes narrowed, filled with nothing but contempt. “Or what?” he challenged. His laugh was cold, mocking, as if I was nothing more than an annoyance in his life. “You think I’m scared of you? You’re nothing but a lying, two-timing whore. I don’t care what excuses you make. You abandoned this pack. You abandoned me, Liana.”
I felt my heart sink deeper into confusion. He was so convinced that I was Liana, that I had somehow betrayed him. How could he be so blind?
“Seize her,” he ordered, his voice sharp and cutting through the murmurs of the crowd. “Take her to the dungeon where she belongs.”