Chapter 4

"Ah—! Are you insane?!"

Lena bounced up from the booth. Ice water ran down her haute couture gown.

Her foundation and eyeliner smeared into a mess, making her look like a painted cat.

Clara was startled by the sudden scream and burst into tears with a "wah," hugging my leg tightly.

I immediately shielded my daughter behind me, looking at her expressionlessly as she jumped around.

"What did I do to you that you'd throw water on me?" Lena dabbed at her face with an expensive silk handkerchief,

while playing the victim to the surrounding onlookers. "Everyone look! This person threw water on me for no reason! How can there be no rules?!"

Banquet attendants quickly squeezed through the crowd, bowing as they tried to mediate:

"Ma'am, please calm down. Talk it out nicely, don't disturb the other guests' dining experience."

"Talk nicely? I've been soaked like this and you want me to talk nicely?"

Lena pointed at my nose and shouted, her nail almost poking my face.

"Do you know who I am? I'm the person Alpha Karen specially brought here!

Go get Karen over here right now. Every minute you're late, I'll have him fire you!"

The attendant looked troubled: "Ma'am, Alpha Karen is currently at the main table hosting the three clans' elders. He really can't step away."

"Can't step away? His woman has been bullied like this and he can't step away?" Lena raised her voice shrilly.

"You won't go? Fine, I'll go to the main table and find him myself. Then I'll tell him you were disrespectful to me, and we'll see how Karen deals with you!"

The attendant had no choice but to steel himself and go report. A few minutes later he returned, looking embarrassed:

"Alpha Karen says he really can't leave right now. He asks everyone to calm down, and he'll handle it after the banquet ends."

Lena was clearly unsatisfied with this response. Just as she was about to make a scene, a Beta's steady voice suddenly rang through the banquet hall—it was Karen's second-in-command:

"Distinguished guests, we have a female guest in the inner hall who has publicly attacked another person, causing harm to Alpha Karen's Omega. Banquet security, please immediately restrain the troublemaker to ensure the safety of Alpha Karen's Omega."

The moment the microphone announcement ended, every gaze in the banquet hall focused on me in unison.

"Daring to touch someone Karen brought? Does she not want to survive in werewolf circles anymore?"

"Karen's Omega is so pitiful, accompanying her boyfriend to a banquet and getting bullied..."

"Making a scene with a child in tow, isn't she afraid of traumatizing the kid?"

Some people took out their phones to secretly snap photos. Guests at nearby tables, afraid of getting involved in trouble, all shifted their seats away.

A circle immediately cleared around our booth. Clara trembled all over, burying her face in my arms, crying softly and asking:

"Mommy, why is everyone looking at us? Why won't Daddy help us?"

I held my daughter as bone-chilling cold shot from the soles of my feet to the top of my head.

In front of the entire circle, Karen had turned me and my daughter into a laughingstock for everyone to gawk at.

Two banquet security guards in black suits walked up to me.

Seeing the guards arrive, Lena immediately put on an act, standing behind them.

"It's her who threw water on me for no reason. I didn't even provoke her. Quickly take her away, I'm scared..."

The guards reassured Lena, then turned to me:

"Ma'am, please cooperate with us. Don't make this difficult for us."

A server who appeared to be a shift supervisor quietly advised me:

"Ma'am, I think you should just apologize. Alpha Karen has a lot of influence in the circle now. If this gets bigger, it won't be good for you or the child."