Thora's POV: Before the wolf power around Shirley spiraled out of control again, Oliver immediately pulled her away, hurriedly greeting me. "Ms. Green, I need to get her out of here." I nodded. Shirley had snuck out, and with her unstable wolf power, leaving her here would be like keeping a ticking time bomb around. But I was genuinely surprised. We'd only met once, yet she'd gotten angry with a group of strangers on my behalf. As soon as they left, Hazel suddenly leaned close to me, speaking at a volume only I could hear. "Thora, you're really something. First you hook up with that Alpha, Mr. Blackwood, and now you're hitting on new guys at the banquet."Suddenly, she raised her voice. "Thora, you have a fiancé. Isn't it inappropriate to get so cozy with other men in public like this?" Hazel's voice drew quite a bit of attention, and people turned their gazes toward us. I gave a cold laugh and stepped forward to stand directly in front of her. "Having a fiancé and getting close to other men is still better than someone who gets cozy with someone else's fiancé, don't you think?" This kind of low-level trash talk that relied on volume to win sympathy was beneath me, but that didn't mean I'd let her throw dirt on my name. "What are you implying?" Hazel's voice suddenly turned shrill, taking on an aggrieved, tearful tone. "I was just trying to remind you. Even if you're upset, you can't slander me and ruin my reputation in front of everyone like this ... " "Look at that. You sure caught on quickly." I shrugged. A werewolf from a pureblood Alpha family, yet all she knew were these underhanded tactics of playing the victim and slinging mud. What a waste of her natural gifts. "Thora, Caleb doesn't like you because you have no self-respect." I shot back with a cold laugh. "So that's your excuse for seducing someone else's fiancé?" More and more onlookers gathered. "Isn't that Hazel? Seducing her own sister's fiancé at such a young age. What's she going to be like when she grows up?" "Right? And look at what she's wearing. Jeez, so slutty! Bet she came to this banquet just to hook men." "Just like her mother. They both love using dirty tricks to steal other women's men. Such a disgrace to purebloods." These comments instantly made Hazel flush with humiliated rage. She raised her hand to strike me. "You're lying! You're slandering me!"I grabbed her wrist and squeezed hard. "Let go of me! Ahhh! You're going to break my bones!" I lowered my voice to whisper in her ear. "I remember warning you to behave yourself. Otherwise, I won't show mercy." With that, I shoved her hard, throwing her directly into the nearby fountain. "You bitch! How dare you treat Ms. Hazel like that!" Accompanied by Caleb's furious roar, I felt his hands shoving at my back. Since this banquet was destined to be chaotic anyway, I might as well fall into the water and make my exit. And Caleb defending Hazel would give me the upper hand in public opinion when I brought up breaking off the engagement later. So even though I could have dodged, I remained standing where I was, going with the momentum of his push and falling into the fountain. ... Darius's POV: To see Thora as soon as possible, I'd compressed all my rest time to finish my work faster. Throughout whole drive over, I pushed Carl so hard he nearly drove fast enough to make the car shoot sparks. Fortunately, we finally made it to the banquet. Standing at the banquet hall entrance, I straightened my collar, preparing to find Thora looking my absolute best. Who would've thought that the moment I walked in, I'd see Caleb pushing Thora into the fountain. "Fuck!" I couldn't help but curse under my breath as I ran toward the fountain. "Damn it, he actually dared to push Thora! What if she can't swim!" Lorcan slammed against my mental barriers, trying to seize control of my body to save Thora and tear apart the idiot who'd dared to push her. I suppressed Lorcan's impulses, using wolf power to speed up as I ran to the edge of the pool and dove in where Thora had fallen.