Chapter 632
Dallas let out a ragged, shuddering breath of relief. But the moment the magic settled, his eyes bled into molten gold. He pulled me down by my waist, his voice dropping into a dark, possessive growl. “You may own my kingdom, little moon, but you are still entirely mine.”
I smiled through my tears, brushing a stray lock of dark hair from his forehead. “Well, since I own the kingdom, that means you have to listen to me now.”
An hour later, en route to the airport, we made a brief stop at The Moonstone Galleria. The luxurious, glass-domed indoor mall was a haven for the Pack elite.
As I pushed Dallas’s wheelchair through the atrium, a display in a high-end children’s boutique caught my eye. Resting in the center of the pristine glass window was a glowing white baby swaddle, woven from rare Moon-Weaver silk and delicately embroidered with the Marshall crest.
Dallas followed my gaze. The lethal Alpha vanished, replaced by a fierce, protective warmth.
“We’re buying it,” he declared, reaching for his wallet.
“Dallas, it’s too early,” I laughed softly, resting my hands on his shoulders. “We don’t even know the pup’s gender yet. Let’s just focus on your surgery first.”
His hands stilled on the wheels. A shadow of profound regret crossed his face. “I missed Azalea’s first Shift,” he murmured, the guilt heavy in his voice. “I was away on a Dire Guard mission when the bone-breaking agony hit her. I wasn’t there to anchor her. I failed her as a father.”
He looked up at me, his eyes burning with an unbreakable resolve.
“I won’t fail this time,” Dallas vowed, his voice vibrating with absolute certainty. “I will survive this blade. I will be whole again to hold my pup. And I swear to you, Adella, I will walk into that delivery room on my own two legs.”
The sheer emotional weight of his promise made my heart swell. I opened my mouth to reply, but a sudden, loud cheer erupted from the walkway ahead.
A crowd had gathered, completely blocking the path outside Lumière Jewels. The boutique’s heavy glass doors were propped open, and the blinding glare of the interior halogen lights spilled into the dim atrium, cutting through the shadows like a white-hot blade.
Adella POV
The loud cheer from the crowd drew my gaze toward the open doors of Lumière Jewels. Inside the pristine boutique, bathed in the harsh, blinding glare of halogen lights, stood Alpha Lance Sterling. He was holding the hand of a stunning brunette — Cynthia Volkov — and sliding a massive diamond engagement ring onto her finger.
As Cynthia gasped in delight, she turned her hand. The multifaceted diamond caught the intense halogen beam perfectly, refracting it into a blinding, piercing flash of white light that shot directly into the dim atrium.
It hit Dallas straight in the eyes.
The reaction was instantaneous and catastrophic. Dallas’s massive body went completely rigid. His hands clamped onto the armrests of his wheelchair with bone-crushing force. The comforting scent of violent storms and cedar that had wrapped around me vanished, replaced in an instant by the sharp, terrifying stench of ozone and burnt copper.
It was the scent of pure, unadulterated terror.