Chapter 598
Anson Fowler POV
I severed the encrypted audio link with Dallas Marshall, a dark smirk playing at the corners of my mouth. The great Alpha King, reduced to a cornered, broken beast. I leaned back in my heavy leather chair, tossing the small Memory Crystal into the air and catching it with one hand. The ultimate leverage.
The torrential rain had washed the scent of the city away, but it couldn’t mask the sharp, suffocating stench of pure terror radiating from Sloane Corbin when my guards escorted her through the embassy’s private administrative alleyway. She had stood right here in my penthouse office, dripping rainwater onto my imported Persian rugs, and she hadn’t wasted a single second on pleasantries or tears. From a waterproof pouch, she had produced this very crystal.
“This is my dowry,” Sloane had said, her voice trembling but laced with a desperate, venomous resolve. “I trade Dosha’s secrets for my freedom.”
I had channeled a thread of my Alpha energy into the crystal. The vision that flooded my mind was damning: Dosha conspiring with an exiled Rogue Alchemist, plotting to contaminate the Blackwood Pack’s soil with weaponized silver dust. My Inner Wolf had rumbled with dark satisfaction at the sight of such undeniable treason. I had extended my hand, sealing our cold, transactional engagement. Her betrayal was now my ultimate weapon.
“You’re actually going to marry the traitor, Alpha?”
Kael’s voice pulled me back to the present. My Beta stood by the heavy oak door of my office, his posture rigid, the scent of his unease mingling with the expensive whiskey in my glass.
“This alliance with Marshall — it’s playing with fire,” Kael continued, his Inner Wolf clearly agitated by my ambition. “It could drag Silver Creek into a war we can’t control.”
“You lack vision, Kael,” I chuckled, pouring myself another glass. “Sloane is nothing but a tool. A convenient key to unlock the gates of the Crimson Paw Pack.”
I rose and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the storm-battered Manhattan skyline. “Dosha is a dead woman walking. But she isn’t the real prize.”
Kael frowned, stepping further into the room. “Then who is?”
“Adella Everett,” I murmured. The mere mention of her name made my Inner Wolf pace with predatory hunger.
“Dallas Marshall is a crippled King,” I continued, turning to face my Beta. “The silver in his veins has left him a broken shell, incapable of even completing the Marking ritual on his own Mate. Adella is a wolfless Queen tethered to a dying beast. By handing Marshall the weapon to execute Dosha, I am positioning myself as the savior.”
I took a slow sip of whiskey, letting the burn settle in my chest. “I will show Adella exactly what a whole, powerful Alpha can offer her. I will give her the protection and the empire that Dallas never can. The spoils of war belong to the strongest predator, Kael. And I intend to claim the ultimate Luna.”
Kael bowed his head, submitting to my logic, though the scent of his apprehension lingered in the air.