Claimed by the scarred Alpha

ÉTIENNE

"Before we sit down and hash out any of this properly," Arania said, already turning toward the stone figure across the room, "we need to get out of here first."

"Are we just leaving that where it stands?" I asked, glancing at the frozen shape of the demon, his snarl carved permanently into rock.

"Of course not," Arania said, sounding almost offended by the suggestion. "We’re taking him with us."

She turned to Ophelia.

"Looks like we’re heading back to Valcourt," she said.

Ophelia let out a long breath and extended her hand toward the small fae without argument. The moment their fingers touched, both of them vanished entirely, and I flinched at the suddenness of it, my arms still full of Margaux’s unconscious weight.

They reappeared just as fast.

"Where did you two go?" I asked.

"Valcourt," Ophelia said. "We had to draw the same rune trapping him here at your infirmary first, if we’re going to transport him safely without the whole spell unraveling after transit."

Arania was already drifting toward the stone figure again.

"I’ll be back in a minute," she said, and vanished with him this time, the space where he’d stood left suddenly, unnervingly empty.

Ophelia crouched down to meet my eyes properly, her expression softening.

"She’ll be back," she said.

"And you’re certain that thing won’t break free," I said, "in the middle of wherever she’s taking him?"

"Arania is meticulous," Ophelia said. "I trust her completely. If she says it’s contained, it’s contained."

The fae reappeared a moment later, brushing off her tiny hands like she’d just finished ordinary housework.

"That’s done," she said. "Now we need to move quickly, before someone at Valcourt stumbles onto an unfamiliar stone statue sitting in an infirmary corner and decides shoving it out the door is the responsible course of action. I did ward the door itself, but people find ways around wards more often than I’d like to admit."

"My brother is back there though," Ophelia maintained.

"I did not have time to tell him of the graveness of the situation before I teleported back here."

They were still chatting when I felt my stomach drop.

"Fuck," I said. "I left a sentinel posted outside. I have to tell him what happened. Let him stand down."

"If that’s the one who shot at us," Arania said, "he’s currently not in much of a position to have a conversation with anyone right now."

I stared at her.

"I’ll handle it," she said, already reaching for both of us. "For now, we need to leave."

I didn’t even get a second for argue.

The world glitched around me, reality folding in on itself the way I’d only ever seen it do through Séverine’s teleporting monster of a familiar, and when it settled again, I stood inside the Valcourt infirmary, the fluorescent light humming overhead in place of the gas station’s flicker.

The head healer rushed toward us immediately.

"My sister told me everything," he said, already reaching for Margaux.

"Take care of her," I said, transferring her weight into his arms with more reluctance than I expected, my hands lingering a half second too long against her cold skin. "There’s something I have to do first."

He nodded and carried her to a cot, settling her down with practiced gentleness.

"I suppose it’s back to our conversation, then," Arania said.

I looked once more at the space where the stone figure now sat, propped against the far wall like some grotesque piece of furniture, and felt something hot and violent uncoil in my chest.

"There’s a conversation I need to have first," I said. "With someone else."

I walked out before anyone could stop me.

Rage burned through every part of me, and I already knew exactly where I intended to point it. I found a sentinel making his rounds near the main corridor, and the poor man looked genuinely startled to see me standing there naked, covered in blood and gas station glass.

"Where is our Beaumont visitor?" I asked.

"The lounge, Alpha Étienne."

I didn’t slow down on my way there.

She was pacing when I arrived, her steps quick and agitated across the same floor she’d collapsed onto earlier today, but the second she saw me, something in her posture eased.

"Goddess, you’re back," she said. "What happened to Margaux? Is she—"

"Forget that," I said, cutting her off entirely. "As long as I still breathe, Margo will be safe. That is not up for discussion or negotiation with you."

She blinked at the force of it.

"I have one question for you though," I said. "Why did my family have to die?"

"What?"

"You heard me."

"Margaux is more important right now than rehashing old shit," she said, her voice climbing defensively. "Your family committed a crime and paid for it. I’m sorry you got caught in that fallout because of my brother, but what does that have to do with—"

"Enough," I said, the word tearing out of me louder than I intended. "Enough with the lies. Your lies are the reason everyone in this has suffered as much as they have. Margaux most of all." I took a step closer, watching her flinch back from whatever she saw building in my face. "Did you not lie because you’re not actually Vivianne at all? You’re the other one. Isabelle."

She froze completely.

She didn’t answer right away.

Her mouth opened, closed, opened again, and I watched every last defense she’d been holding onto for years crumble in real time, her carefully maintained composure finally giving out under the weight of a name she hadn’t heard spoken aloud in longer than I could imagine.

"How," she whispered, "how do you know that name?"

"Answer my question first," I said. "Why did my family have to die, Isabelle?"

She flinched at the sound of it, actually flinched, like I’d struck her.

"Don’t," she said. "Please. Nobody calls me that. Nobody has called me that in over a decade."

"I don’t particularly care what you’re comfortable being called," I said. "I care about the truth. You’ve spent years wearing your dead sister’s name, raising her child as your own, and somewhere in the middle of that, my entire family burned because of a secret you were protecting. And you were the one who came here today talking about demons so fucking talk!"

Her legs seemed to give out beneath her, and she sank onto the nearest chair rather than falling outright, her hands pressed flat against her knees like she needed something solid to hold onto.

"Margaux is my child!" She screamed back.

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