Chapter 4: Just a Woman

I was busy admiring my necklace in front of my reflection in the vanity mirror when my eyes flew towards Severin, who had just left the bathroom from taking a bath and saw what I was doing.

His lips curled into a scowl as he gritted his teeth. The furrow of his eyebrows and the squint in his eyes revealed his obvious disapproval.

His reaction made my eyebrow arch before I spun myself to face him, following him to the wardrobe through gazing at him. "Did you know? I found my necklace again." I tried to initiate a conversation with him since I knew very well that he never expected me to have the necklace again. "The odds are in my favor, no? I did not think that I would ever find my necklace again."

My words reached Severin's ears as he slammed the wardrobe door. "I should have thrown it back to the lake when I had the chance..." he muttered. But that was barely a whisper. He intentionally made me hear it as soon as his eyes flung a slap of death in my direction.

"Boo-boo... You are not as smart as what your pack members claimed."

That was the last straw I had pulled when Severin did not hesitate to take the flower vase and throw it in my direction. With my quick reflexes, I caught it, looking at him in disbelief when the water was spilled on my stomach part.

"Are you seriously going to throw this on me?" I asked, scoffing that this man had no limits at all. He would dare to hurt me in any way he could.

Severin marched towards me and was about to steal the necklace I was wearing on my neck when I jerked his hand away. "Give me that!" He growled. "I shall make sure that you are not going to find it again," he said through gritted teeth.

I held my necklace from the threat he said while I had a smirk plastering on my lips. "Do not even think that I shall make a mistake that you are going to—"

"Severin? Kasumi?"

Severin and I turned our heads when Madeline knocked in our chamber before opening it. Her eyes widened when she saw that we were close to each other, almost writhing each other's necks.

She fluttered her eyelids before clearing her throat. "Um... Thaddeus summons you two to his study room." There was a hint of frightened tone lingering in her tone. As always, no one could notice that while she had a brilliant smile on her lips.

Madeline's words brought chills down my spine, causing Severin and me to distance ourselves, knowing well what this could have been.

"Tsk..." Severin winced his hair before dragging himself outside. "Madeline, do not wait for her." He glared at me before dragging his stepmother away from our chamber.

"H-Hold on, Severin!" I heard Madeline's scurrying tone.

I only rolled my eyes when they were out of my sight. It was good that Madeline had to be with Severin. Even though Madeline was Severin's stepmother and the current Luna of the Blazing Winter pack, their relationship had never been hostile from the surface. In fact, Severin did not mind having her married to Thaddeus. He never acted spitefully against her. Instead, he acted gentle and soft on her, which was quite the opposite of when Severin treated me.

As for Severin's mother, she had never been in the picture nor even existed in this pack. I only heard from the gossip of the maidservants that Severin was a product of a one-night stand affair when Thaddeus was in his prime of fooling around with women.

That would be when he was 19 years old and took Severin from his mother, who happened to be a rogue.

I wrapped the soft fabric of my robe around me, making my way into Thaddeus' study room. As soon as I crossed the threshold, the world fell away, cocooning me in a quiet so deep that my own breath sounded like a hurricane. The walls were lined with soundproof material, muffling even the faintest sounds.

My heart flipped over to a sudden impact when I met Thaddeus' orbs while he was clasping his hands together. "Arguing again, Severin, Kasumi?" His slow yet firm tone brought ecstatic to my whole being, feeling shudders to my whole body. Even his gaze was penetrating us with scrutiny. "What is the reason this time?"

My eyes shifted to his desk, made from mahogany, seeing the sturdiness of it just a few meters away from his position. That was where I always gazed at every single time Severin and I was being summoned whenever we would argue.

"Nothing, Father... Just some matters about our studies..."

I glanced up, hearing that pure bitterness as if he swallowed some saffron. If only I could step on his foot from hearing that statement of Severin, I would have done it without a doubt.

"Kasumi, is that true?"

Severin's death glare catapulted in my direction, expecting that I would shut up or else it would be a war.

It would be really a war, and I was going to look for it.

"That is not true," I said, meeting Severin's gaze. "We are talking about the necklace I lost and now, it is in my possession."

You asked for this, Severin. I was not going to stay quiet and do nothing.

"Oh?" Thaddeus slightly tilted his head. "So, what brought it to an argument between you?"

I opened my mouth to say the reason, but we were interrupted by simultaneous knocks.

"Alpha Thaddeus."

It was the voice of Immanuel, the Beta of the Blazing Winter pack.

Severin opened the door for him and let Immanuel enter as he bowed.

"What?" Thaddeus asked in a bitterly cold tone, making my knees wobble.

Hearing that tone meant that something bad had happened. Or perhaps, that was...

"A group of rogues in a distance of 20 kilometers away, heading from the southwest. They will arrive in less than two minutes in our territory," Immanuel reported.

My eyes widened, and at the same time, I heard Madeline and Severin's gasps.

"Father...!" There was a hint of excitement smothering in his tone. "Can I kill them?"

"Thaddeus... Again?" Madeline asked in a worried tone.

Mixed emotions echoed in the study room while I stood there, feeling my chest squeezed, seeing how Thaddeus coughed a grin.

"Go ahead, Severin. Have Perus followed you." Thaddeus was talking about Severin's butler, an excellent warrior in the pack. I heard a soft 'yes' rattled by Severin as he stormed out without warning. "Immanuel, dispatch a troop to assist my son. Madeline, stay here." Then his eyes met mine. "And you, Kasumi..."

"I would like to come," I insisted this time.

I would like to see how Thaddeus handled things in person when dealing with rogues. I would like to know if he had the same elimination methods as my father.

If the past few months of being married to Severin prevented me from seeing how Thaddeus cruelly maneuvered everything around him, I would like to level it up to learn more. It might help me regain my status of being Alpha Hideyoshi's daughter, who wanted to reclaim the Red Sun pack.

"No, Father. Kasumi shall stay here."

How my head flung in Severin's direction had caused a single death stare on my part. But if I thought I could intimidate him, I was wrong, seeing how he looked at me like I was just some speck of dust.

"Why not?"

"A woman should stay here."

"So? Do you think I am that weak of seeing cadavers?" I asked, facing Severin. "I have watched my father slaughtering rogues before my eyes, Severin. Even I was doing of helping Father back then." Severin arched his eyebrow, looking at me in disbelief now that I could talk back in front of his father, which I rarely do anyway. "Did you really think I am just some sort of prim and proper lady? I am also an heiress of the Red Sun pack. And—"

"Since you are married to me, it does not apply that kind of course of action anymore," Severin chimed in. "To me, you are only just a woman who must stay at home and must wait for their husband. Right, Father?"

I could feel Thaddeus' intense gaze engulfing me while my insides were in turmoil for being looked down on by Severin. How much more if Thaddeus agreed with his son?

That would have made me wish to be buried six feet below the ground.

It was hard that other people were still not seeing a woman could be an Alpha. However, Father did not see me that way. He told me that I was fit to be one.

"They are here."

I watched as Thaddeus stood up, his movements tense and purposeful. His eyes scanned the room, then darted to the window as if searching for something. I couldn't quite understand what was happening, but the look on his face told me that he had a feeling something was wrong. Then, I realized he must have sensed that the rogues had entered our borders.

"Your orders, Alpha?" Immanuel asked politely.

"Eliminate them without mercy," Thaddeus replied as his voice cut through the air, the words crisp and cold, like icicles forming on a winter's day. His face contorted into a scowl, his eyes darkening as he spoke. The chill in his tone made me shiver, and for a moment, I thought I could see my breath in the air.

That was also the moment his words had brought a grin to his cherry-colored lips.