Flanking Veyra were her mates. I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing out loud. Those were the guys she settled for?

They were scruffy, dull, slumped-shoulder males who looked like they’d apologize to a leaf for stepping on it. Compared to my line-up of absolute gods, her husbands looked like sickly mutts.

Behind them stood Kaelor, broad-shouldered, seeming very powerful. I wonder... Did he ever make it as a beast warrior? Seeing how hollowed out he was, I guess not. He looks like a beast with no purpose.

And finally, my ’father’, Rakan. Rakan looked old. His hair was gray, his spine was bent, and he carried a heavy, makeshift pack on his back like a beaten beast of burden.

They had come to beg. They had come to ask the ’great and wealthy rulers of the West Way’ for a place to survive the winter. And they had absolutely no idea whose house they had just walked into.

Noah and Thalor stepped forward. Because they were decent, diplomatic men who had no idea about the toxic waste disposal unit that was my birth family, Thalor offered them a warm, welcoming smile.

"Welcome to the West Way," Thalor began, his voice smooth and melodic, immediately charming the females from the tribe. "We heard of your plight, and we—"

Grrrrrrr...

A low, bone-chilling growl rumbled from the right side of my throne, vibrating right through the stone floor, and Thalor’s words died instantly.

Fenric stepped forward, his crimson eyes locking onto Veyra with a lethal, frosty glare. The wooden spear he had been carving was put on hold, and now his tensed chest heaved as his fangs bared.

The moment Veyra heard that growl, her entire body physically recoiled. She let out a sharp, terrified shriek, clutching her scarred face, and scrambled backward to hide behind her weak-ass mates.

She was trembling so hard I thought she’d shake her baby right out.

On my left, Damar shifted. His massive, silver scaly tail—which had been gently keeping our three playing cubs in a safe wall—slowly uncoiled, sliding across the stone floor with a sinister, heavy hiss. His emerald eyes slit into razor-thin, murderous lines.

Noah and Thalor froze, completely baffled by the sudden, feral hostility coming from their usually calm co-husbands. They looked between Fenric’s bared fangs and Damar’s lethal posture, realizing a silent war had just entered the room.

"Fenric... and the snake?" Rakan whispered, his voice cracking as he recognized that face.

It was as if, as soon as he saw Fenric and Damar, he knew right away that I’d be here. And I was somewhere they’d try to protect.

He immediately looked up, his eyes traveling past my husbands, up the steps of the dais, until his gaze finally, finally collided with mine.

I didn’t turn away. I didn’t hide.

I just sat there, my legs swinging slightly, looking down at them with a cold, smug smile.

Kaelor’s heart practically stopped. I watched his eyes go wide, his breath catching in his throat as he stared at me. He looked like he’d been struck by lightning.

The sister he had tried to control, the sister who had once cried desperately for his affection, was sitting on a throne of stone and fur, glowing, wealthy, and surrounded by the most powerful mates in the world.

Rakan staggered back a step, his eyes filling with a devastating, crushing wave of shock and suffocating regret. He looked at me, then at the sprawling, warm paradise around him, realizing the immense depth of his failure.

I watched Veyra stare at my flawless, glowing skin, and then look down at her own dirty, scarred hands. She looked like she wanted the ground to open up and swallow her whole.

Take a look, bitches. I didn’t say a word, but the smirk on my face said everything.

Take a good look at the ’ugly, useless monster’ you threw in the dirt. See who’s laughing now.

This was the Pinnacle of revenge.

But... Did this really have to happen seven days before my delivery? Gosh, what a headache.

The silence in the room was so thick you could have sliced it with one of our new river-stone daggers.

​Thalor and Noah were still frozen on the lower steps of the dais, their heads whipping back and forth between the snarling Fenric, the ready-to-strike Damar, and the trembling, wide-eyed group of tigers.

Noah’s eyebrows were practically knitted into his hairline, his dark eyes filled with deep confusion. Thalor’s polite, welcoming smile had completely vanished, replaced by the sharp, calculating look of someone who had just realized he walked right into a minefield.

​Down below, the Stormhole tribe was a complete mess. Rakan looked like he had aged another ten years in a single second, his hands shaking so violently that the straps of his heavy pack rattled against his chest.

Kaelor’s gaze was glued to me, his mouth slightly parted, looking like a man who had walked off a cliff and hadn’t hit the bottom yet.

​And then, there was Veyra.

​Even with Fenric’s terrifying growl still echoing in her ears, she couldn’t take her eyes off me. Her gaze swept over my thick, glossy hair, my flawless skin, the soft, luxurious furs draped over my throne, and the massive, unmistakable shape of my pregnant belly.

Her eyes darted to Thalor’s elegant, breathtaking frame, then to Noah’s powerful, golden-regal presence, and back up to Fenric and Damar.

​I could see her mind fracturing in real-time. To her, a female’s worth was measured by the mates she could secure and the cubs she could carry.

She had settled for two slumped-shoulder, dull-furred nobodies who were currently shivering behind her, while I—the ’ugly outcast’ she had tried to ruin—was sitting on a throne, pregnant with my second batch of offspring, surrounded by four of the most gorgeous, powerful, high-fidelity beastmen to ever walk this earth.

​She began to mutter. It was a low, frantic, scratching sound, her fingers clawing at the woolen wrap around her face.

​"No... no, this isn’t... how is she... why is she here?" she whispered, her voice cracking with a disgusting, toxic envy that she couldn’t even hide. "She’s a monster... She’s supposed to be... She brought the snake... She did this to me... Why do they... Why does she have them...?"