Chapter 273

Chapter 273:

“You are playing a very dangerous game, Adella p>

“I learned from the best,” I whispered.

He kissed me then—hard and possessive, a promise of violence against anyone who dared touch what was his. “If Volkov hurts you,” he murmured against my lips, “there will be no world left for him to hide in p>

With one last burning look, he turned and slipped out the back window, disappearing into the grey morning rain.

I was alone.

But not helpless.

I waited until I was certain he was gone, then moved to the far corner of the room near the old easel. I dropped to my knees and pried up a loose floorboard I had discovered years ago, back when this studio had been my sanctuary.

Reaching into the dusty hollow beneath, my fingers brushed against cool plastic. I pulled it free—a cheap burner phone I had hidden away three years prior, kept charged by a small solar power bank. It was untraceable. Off the Pack network. A ghost.

I powered it on. The screen glowed with a faint blue light in the dim room.

𝗙іn𝗱 𝗻𝘰𝗏𝗲𝗹 P𝖣𝖥𝘀 о𝗇

Silas thought he had cut me off from the world. He thought I was just a wolfless girl with no claws to fight back.

He was wrong. I didn’t need claws.

I had something better. I had a plan.

The dress landed on the bed like a pool of spilled blood.

It was red silk—slinky and vulgar, with a neckline that plunged dangerously low and a slit designed to expose more thigh than decency permitted. It wasn’t clothing. It was wrapping paper.

“Put it on,” Maeve Thorne commanded, her voice coated in a sickly sweetness that made my skin crawl. She stood by the door of my old bedroom with her arms crossed, watching me with the cold, flat eyes of a shark circling a wounded seal. “Volkov likes his prizes to look breakable p>

I stared at the garment and fought the urge to recoil. Maeve had always hated me. To her, I was the wolfless stain on the Thorne family crest—a burden that consumed their food and breathed their air. Now, at last, she had found a use for me.

“Turn around,” I said, my voice flat. “I won’t change with you watching me p>

Maeve let out a sharp, barking laugh. “Modesty? Really, Adella? Where you’re going, modesty won’t save you.” But she turned her back, busying herself with her reflection in the hallway mirror, eager to look the part of the benevolent guardian.

I moved fast.

I shed my damp clothes and slipped into the red silk. It felt cold against my skin, like a second layer of ice. As I pulled the straps up, my eyes cut to the mattress where I had stashed my lifeline. With the sleight of hand I had practiced over years of hiding sketches and journals, I palmed the burner phone and the micro-recorder in a single motion.