Chapter 163: Didn’t See Her Coming
Malric’s jaw clenched. The silence from the elders was deafening. Betraying nothing, they kept their eyes lowered, hands folded, but their lack of protest spoke volumes. "I don’t believe it!"
Theon took a step forward, closing the space between them. "You don’t have to believe it, Malric. But deny it all you want, the blood of the house of Vael runs through me. And unlike you, I’ve earned every drop of respect I’ve bled for."
A low growl escaped Malric’s throat, but he didn’t strike. Not yet.
"That blood you speak of," Malric sneered, "was diluted the moment your father chose to bear a bastard with no name and no worth."
"I made that name worth something," Theon snapped, his eyes flashing. "While you were drunk on your privileges, I was spilling blood on the frontlines, cleaning up your family’s failures."
Gasps rippled through the hall. One of the elders shifted uncomfortably, but still, no one spoke.
Theon glanced at them all. "You can sit there in your silence, but don’t forget, it was I who stood when the walls were falling. And it’ll be me who stands again when it crumbles. Not this, manwhore, who couldn’t even lift a finger or spend his money and manpower when rogues and monsters attacked. Is that the kind of Alpha you want? The kind who’d go to Luna Reana, winking at her and trying to seduce her?"
Malric’s face paled. That hit him hard in the guts. Women and alcohol were his weakness. He couldn’t stop no matter how hard he tried. And it was frankly not something he was proud of.
"YOU DARE...!! You fucking son of a whore!" Malric bellowed, his voice echoing off the stone walls.