Chapter 628
Dallas stared down at the kneeling Elder. His storm-gray eyes were entirely devoid of mercy.
“Keep your money, Malcolm,” Dallas commanded, his voice a low, vibrating rumble that rattled the crystal glasses on the bar cart. “I require a different kind of tribute. You are going to spread a message to the Elders of every Pack.”
Malcolm swallowed hard, nodding frantically. “Anything.”
“You will tell them that the Alpha King has suffered a severe relapse of his silver wounds,” Dallas said smoothly, weaving his trap. “Tell them I am confined to the Marshall Estate for a six-month, deeply isolated recovery. Tell them I am weak.”
Malcolm’s head snapped up, his eyes wide with genuine horror. “Sir — you cannot ask me to do that. The old enemies, those who know you as the Ghost… if they believe you are incapacitated, they will see it as a signal. They will come to hunt you.”
Dallas leaned forward in his wheelchair. The molten gold of Ragnar flared in his eyes, bleeding pure, predatory anticipation into the room.
“Let them come,” Dallas whispered, the lethal edge in his voice making the hair on my arms stand up. “The Ghost has been hungry for a long time.”
Malcolm scrambled to his feet, his face the color of ash. He bowed one last time and practically fled the room.
The heavy doors slammed shut. The suffocating tension slowly drained from the living room, leaving only the crackle of the dying fire.
I walked around the wheelchair and dropped slowly to my knees in front of Dallas, placing my hands over his large, scarred knuckles resting on the armrests. The terrifying predator who had just broken an Elder vanished. Dallas looked down at me, the golden fire in his eyes fading back to a tired, storm-gray.
“Who is the Ghost, Dallas?” I asked, my voice trembling slightly. “What else are you hiding from me?”
He let out a ragged sigh, his broad shoulders slumping. He turned his hand over and laced his thick fingers through mine.
“I hid a world of blood and death from you, Adella,” he murmured, his voice thick with a profound, aching sorrow. “A world I prayed you would never have to see. I wanted to keep you in the light.”
“I don’t want the light if you aren’t in it,” I said fiercely, squeezing his hand. “I am your Luna. I need to know everything.”
Dallas rested his forehead against mine, inhaling my scent of Moonflowers and rain. “From the moment we step onto that plane to Switzerland,” he promised, his breath warm against my skin, “I will spend the rest of my life telling you every secret. No more shadows.”
I closed my eyes, accepting the weight of his vow. Our relationship was finally stepping into a realm of absolute truth. But before we could board that plane and face the terrifying fifty-percent chance of his surgery, I had a secret of my own to secure.