Chapter 213
Chapter 213:
I stood, my legs trembling slightly, but I forced my spine straight. “If you send Leon, or if you go down there yourself, you’ll kill him. And if you kill him, he becomes a martyr — the tragic victim of the tyrant Alpha King p>
“I do not care about public opinion, Adella. I care about threats to what is mine p>
“He isn’t a threat. He’s a nuisance,” I countered, walking around the island until I stood directly before him, craning my neck to meet his eyes. “Let me handle this. I need to end it p>
Dallas stared at me, searching for any lingering affection for the man who had broken me. He found none.
“You want to face him,” he stated — not a question.
“I need him to know that he didn’t lose me to you,” I said, my voice gaining strength. “I need him to know he lost me because he wasn’t worthy. If you tear him apart, he’ll never learn that lesson p>
A long silence stretched between us. Finally, Dallas gave a sharp, singular nod.
“Go,” he growled, the sound vibrating with restrained violence. “But know this, Adella. I will be watching. If he touches you — if he so much as breathes wrong in your direction — I will turn him into a stain on the pavement p>
The wind outside was biting, whipping my hair across my face as I stepped through the building’s main entrance. I had thrown a trench coat over my clothes and belted it tight, wearing it like armor.
Braydon was waiting by a sleek black sedan near the curb. He looked diminished. His shirt was wrinkled, his jaw shadowed with stubble, his eyes rimmed with red. He looked nothing like the confident future Alpha I had once thought I loved.
𝘙е𝗮𝖽 f𝗋𝘰m yо𝘶r ph𝗼ո𝘦 𝘰n
When he saw me, his face crumpled into a mask of desperate hope.
“Addie,” he breathed, stepping forward. He held something in his hand — a small, crude wooden wolf carving. A trinket he had made for me years ago, back when we were teenagers, back before Katherine, before the betrayal.
“What are you doing here, Braydon?” I asked, my voice flat.
“I had to see you. I had to explain,” he pleaded, holding the carving out like an offering. “I ended it with Katherine. I told her it was over. I realized I made a mistake. It’s always been you, Addie. Please, just take this. Remember us p>
I looked at the carving, then at him. I felt nothing. No spark. No pain. Just a hollow, quiet pity.
“You ended it with Katherine?” I let out a dry, humorless laugh. “You didn’t leave her because you had an epiphany, Braydon. You left her because her family is destitute. You only threw her away after Dallas had already turned her Pack to ash p>
Braydon flinched as if I had struck him. “That’s not fair! I did it for us p>
“There is no ‘us.’ There never was,” I said, my voice going to ice. “You’re not a hero. You’re a scavenger picking through the ruins, looking for a safety net because your political alliance collapsed p>