Chapter 597

I stared into her unwavering eyes. The fierce, protective Luna looking back at me left absolutely no room for my stubborn pride. I lost the argument. And for the first time in my life, I was grateful for it.

I parted my lips and swallowed the pills.

Before the heavy sedatives could fully pull Ragnar under, my encrypted private communicator chimed sharply on the nightstand. With agonizing effort, I dragged my heavy hand across the sheet. My fingers trembled as I picked it up, the screen displaying a triple-encrypted magical signature. I accepted the audio link.

“How the mighty have fallen,” Anson Fowler’s arrogant voice echoed through the small speaker.

Ragnar snarled weakly in my mind. “Make it quick, Fowler, before I have Vance hunt you down.”

“I’m calling with a wedding invitation, Marshall,” Anson chuckled. “I am marrying Sloane Corbin.”

I froze. Dosha’s former ally?

“She brings a very interesting dowry,” Anson continued, his tone dropping into a lethal, calculating purr. “A Memory Crystal. It proves Dosha conspired with an exiled Blood Witch to curse the Blackwood lands. It’s a definitive death sentence for your favorite enemy.”

My grip on the communicator tightened. Every instinct screamed at me to refuse. Anson was a snake — trusting him was like handing a dagger to an assassin and hoping he’d stab the right target.

But the alternative was worse. Dosha was still breathing. Still plotting. Still a threat to Adella and our unborn pup.

I thought of Adella’s tear-stained face in the recovery suite. The way she had held my hand while I drifted toward surgery. The way she had twisted the truth about the Protectorate Clause just to stay by my side.

She deserved a world where she didn’t have to lie to keep me alive. She deserved a world where Dosha was ash.

I would swallow my pride. I would deal with the devil. And when Dosha was gone, I would deal with Anson too.

“What do you want, Anson?” I growled, my voice flat.

“I hand over the crystal. You get Dosha’s head on a spike. In return, the Blackwood Pack remains entirely neutral when I absorb the Crimson Paw Pack into my territory.”

It was a dangerous, unholy alliance. But the opportunity to permanently destroy the monster who had crippled me and threatened my pregnant mate was too intoxicating to refuse. My strategic instincts overrode my disgust.

“Duncan will contact you with the secure drop coordinates,” I said, and severed the connection before I could change my mind.

I looked up. Adella was watching me, her brow furrowed as she registered the shock, rage, and cold calculation that had just moved across my face.

“Dallas?” she asked softly, stepping closer to the bed. “What happened? Who was that?”

I looked at her — at the swell of her belly, at the worry in her eyes. I couldn’t drag her into the treacherous mud of this secret alliance. Not while she was carrying our pup.

“Nothing for you to worry about, little moon,” I lied smoothly, burying the dangerous truth deep in the dark. “Just Pack business.”