Chapter 364

Gigi knew. She had to know. Azalea’s mother hadn’t been a warrior — she had been a scholar who spent her life begging for access to those very archives. Gigi had denied her then, and now she was handing that same legacy to me. The outsider. Azalea, the loyal Beta’s daughter, had received nothing but scorn.

This wasn’t a gift. It was a weapon designed to sever the only friendship I had left.

Panic flared in my chest. If Azalea saw this, it would confirm her darkest fear: that she was truly worthless to this family.

I scrambled toward the sleek media cabinet beneath the television. I yanked open the bottom drawer and shoved the ancient, priceless parchment deep inside, burying it beneath a tangle of spare charging cables, dead batteries, and old remote controls.

My phone buzzed on the coffee table.

I glanced at the screen. A text from Dallas.

Dallas: What was in the package? I saw your heart rate spike from the monitor.

I froze. Of course. He was watching — not through the bond alone, but through the tracker in my necklace, the cameras in the building. He knew everything.

I took a slow breath, forcing my heartbeat to steady. I couldn’t let him sense that I was hiding something. If he found out about the Scriptorium, he would either make me tell Azalea himself or handle it his own way — and either path led to the same end.

I typed back quickly.

Me: Just paperwork from Gigi. Legal documents for the check Marcus gave us. Duncan set up a trust fund structure… for future pups.

I hit send and held my breath.

A moment later, another buzz.

Dallas: Pups. I like the sound of that. Sign it. I’ll be home soon.

I let out a shaky exhale and slumped against the cabinet. I had done it — lied to my Alpha King, and he had believed me. But as I stared at his last message, a knot tightened in my stomach. The tracker on my necklace felt heavier now, a reminder that he was always watching, and that this secret was already a crack in the foundation we had built.

“Adella!”

The front door burst open before I could stand. Azalea rushed in, her cheeks flushed pink from the cold, her eyes wide with a frantic sort of happiness.

“Did you see the forums?” she gasped, shedding her wet coat and dropping it onto the pristine floor. “There’s a rumor. Someone saw a courier leaving the archives. They say the Matriarch might be reopening the Moonpetal Scriptorium!”

My stomach twisted. “Oh?” I managed, my voice coming out thin. “That’s… interesting.”

“It’s not just interesting, Adella. It’s everything.” Azalea walked to the window and looked out at the rain, her expression softening into something heartbreakingly fragile. “My mom used to tell me stories about that place. She said it was where broken oaths went to be healed. She died dreaming of seeing inside those walls just once.”

She turned to me, her eyes bright with unshed tears. “If it opens, maybe I can finally feel close to her again. Maybe I can finish what she started.”