Seraphine caught the exact second Voren’s hands clenched into rock-hard fists the moment Olivia finished talking.

The veins on the back of his hands bulged like they were about to burst through the skin, and even though his face stayed completely blank, she knew him better than anyone and could sense the absolute hurricane of rage he was fighting to hold back.

Without a word, she crossed the deck and gently laid her hand on his arm. She guided him over to the nearest chair, waited for him to drop into it, then slipped behind him and started working her fingers into those rock-hard shoulders, rubbing slow, soothing circles to ease some of the insane tension gripping his whole body.

Voren had always been a master at locking his emotions away. To anyone else he probably looked stone-cold calm, but Seraphine knew the terrifying truth.

That heavy silence pouring off him was the worst sign possible. When he went completely quiet like this, his mind was tearing through every worst-case scenario, every brutal possibility, every heartbreaking consequence all at once.

The truth they had just heard was beyond sickening.

A Luna’s body was supposed to be sacred, something no one in any pack would ever dare violate the way Olivia had. If the rest of the pack ever found out what had really happened, the explosion of fury that would follow would be catastrophic.

Just thinking about it made Seraphine’s stomach twist into painful knots.

She kept quiet and continued massaging his shoulders until his big hand finally reached up and covered hers.

His fingers squeezed hers with surprising gentleness before he tugged her around to face him. With almost no effort at all, he pulled her straight onto his lap and wrapped one strong arm around her waist.

"Sit with me," he said, his voice low and soft, almost tender. But the ice-cold fury burning in his eyes sent a chill racing through the entire deck.

Seraphine knew that deadly glare wasn’t for her. It was aimed straight at Olivia.

Before anyone else could say another word, a raw, broken sniffle cut through the heavy silence.

Everyone whipped around toward Vladimir.

The powerful Alpha sat there with tears pouring openly down his face, not even trying to hide them. It was absolutely heartbreaking to watch.

An Alpha crying like that wasn’t something anyone saw every day, but after everything he’d been through, maybe this was exactly what he needed. For decades he had never properly mourned the woman he truly loved.

He had lived every single day right beside someone wearing her face, believing with all his heart that she was still alive while the real Luna had been gone this whole time.

All those years of buried pain were finally crashing down on him like a tidal wave.

As for Voren... he wasn’t crying at all.

He just pulled Seraphine even tighter against him. Her warmth was the only thing keeping him anchored to the ground right now. If she hadn’t been right there beside him through this whole nightmare, nobody could even guess how badly he might have lost control.

Across the room, Kylie crossed her arms and stared straight at Olivia.

"The least you can do now is tell your husband the whole damn story from the beginning."

Before Olivia could even open her mouth, Vladimir’s head snapped toward Kylie with terrifying speed.

"She’s not my wife!"

His furious roar shook the whole deck, raw agony ripping through every single word.

The woman sitting in front of him wasn’t the Luna he had married. She wasn’t the woman he had shared his dreams with. She wasn’t the woman he had built a life and family with. She was nothing but a lying imposter who had stolen everything.

Kylie gave a slow nod. "We know that," she replied calmly. "But she’s been Voren’s mother his entire life. At least let her explain everything. There are still so many pieces we don’t understand."

She wasn’t defending Olivia, no. She just wanted real answers. None of this horrific mess made any sense yet.

How the hell had Vladimir never known his wife had an identical twin? How had Olivia managed to fool an entire pack for over thirty years? There had to be so much more to this nightmare.

Only Vladimir stayed completely silent. Unlike everyone else, his thoughts had already gone somewhere much darker. No one else knew the decision he had already made about what would happen to Olivia once today was over.

The only reason she was still breathing was because they weren’t back at the pack. If they had been, this would have ended in a bloodbath already.

His wolf was not awake in the human world to heal him from the heart attack, and giving in to his rage right now would only make things worse. Even so, his eyes never left Olivia for a second.

He still couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that he had spent over three decades sleeping next to a complete stranger who had lied to his face every single day.

Every smile, every touch, every whispered word, had all been built on nothing but lies and deception.

For the first time since Jasmine had confessed everything, Vladimir silently thanked whatever cruel twist of fate had brought Seraphine into their lives.

If she hadn’t come back into Voren’s life, Jasmine would still be blindly following Olivia’s orders. She never would have confessed. They would all still be trapped inside this web of lies forever.

His jaw clenched so tight it ached.

"If you know what’s good for you," he growled, every word dripping with pure hatred, "you’ll tell us everything right now without making anyone rip it out of you."

The deck fell into complete, suffocating silence. Every single pair of eyes locked onto Olivia.

Her face had gone deathly pale. Her eyes were swollen and red from all the crying. But not a single person in the room felt any pity for her. Not after everything they had learned.

Olivia lowered her head for a long moment before she finally drew in a shaky, broken breath.

"I... I grew up without ever knowing I had a twin sister," she said, her voice trembling badly. "I was already married when my parents finally came to me with the truth."

She swallowed hard, fighting to keep going.

"They told me a midwife had confessed after all those years. My mother had given birth to twin girls, but the midwife secretly stole one of the babies and sold her off to a wealthy family."

Olivia slowly raised her eyes, fresh tears shining in them.

"When I first heard it, I never thought it would affect my life in any way. But... part of me really wanted to meet her. I wanted to see if we actually looked identical. I wanted to know what kind of life she had lived. And..." Her voice dropped to almost a whisper. "I wondered if she would even care that she had a twin sister out there somewhere."

Kylie leaned forward, her patience clearly running out.

"So what happened next?"