Chapter 189

Chapter 189:

The room was dim, lit only by the monitors beeping in their steady, mocking rhythm. Adella sat on the edge of the bed, hands folded in her lap. She looked small. Fragile. The hospital gown swallowed her frame, and the bruises on her arms — marks from the river, from the struggle — stood out starkly against her pale skin.

She looked up as I entered. Her eyes widened, taking in my appearance. I knew what she saw: a man unhinged. My clothes were rumpled, my hair a wreck, dark circles carved beneath my eyes. But more than that, she would smell it — the scent of a Lycan on the edge of madness. Storms and ozone, thick with possessiveness.

“Dallas,” she whispered. Her voice was hoarse, damaged by the water, just like mine.

I didn’t move further into the room. I stayed by the door, blocking the exit. A living barricade.

“Get your things,” I said, my voice a low rumble scraping against the silence. “You’re coming home p>

Adella blinked, confusion knitting her brows together. She glanced around the empty room as though expecting someone to jump out and object. Maybe she was looking for Braydon. The thought made Ragnar snap his jaws in my mind.

𝘚h𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘺𝗈𝘶𝘳 𝘵𝗵𝗼𝘶𝗀h𝗍s оո

“Home?” she repeated softly. “To… to the Pack House p>

“To the Penthouse,” I corrected, stepping forward. The air grew heavy, charged with the static of my aura. “Where I can see you. Where I know you are safe p>

Where you can’t leave me, I didn’t say.

I waited for the argument. I waited for her to tell me she wanted to go back to Hyde Manor, that she wanted to be with the man who hadn’t jumped. I was ready for it — a thousand commands poised on my tongue, ready to force compliance if it came to that.

But she didn’t argue.

She looked at me — really looked at me — her gaze searching my face. For a moment, something softened in her expression. Pity? Regret? I didn’t care. As long as she obeyed.

“Okay,” she said simply.

The word knocked the wind out of me more effectively than the river had. Okay? Just like that?

I narrowed my eyes, suspicion coiling in my gut. Was this a trick? A way to placate the monster until she could run?

I crossed the distance between us in two long strides and loomed over her. I reached out, my hand hovering near her face — then clenched it into a fist and dropped it to my side. I couldn’t touch her. If I touched her now, I wouldn’t be able to let go.

“Good,” I breathed, the word dark and heavy with a promise she couldn’t possibly understand yet. I leaned down until my lips brushed her ear, inhaling the faint scent of moonflowers and rain that was uniquely hers — masked by antiseptic, but still there. It grounded me and drove me insane all at once.

“Because you are never leaving again, Adella p>

She shivered, her breath catching in her throat. But she didn’t pull away. She simply nodded — a quiet acceptance of the cage I had just built around her.

I turned and walked out, expecting her to follow.

She was mine. And tonight, I would make sure she never forgot it.

Adella