Chapter 290
Chapter 290:
The memory slammed into me — not the fire that took my parents, but the terrifying drive three years later. The sudden, blinding fog that hadn’t actually been there. The phantom wolves I thought I saw darting across the road, causing me to swerve. The shattering glass. The months of physical therapy. The pain.
“Why?” The word was a whisper, scraping out of my throat like sandpaper.
“You were asking questions,” Marcus wheezed, his eyes dead. “You were turning eighteen. You were going to claim the inheritance — the land we stole. You were a loose end, Adella. A mistake we should have corrected the night of the fire p>
A loose end. I wasn’t a niece to them. I wasn’t family. I was a clerical error they had tried to erase with forbidden magic.
I turned my head slowly, my neck stiff, to look at Braydon. He stood near the window, his face pale, his jaw clenched so tight a muscle feathered in his cheek. He didn’t look surprised. He didn’t look horrified.
He looked guilty.
“You knew,” I said. It wasn’t a question.
Braydon took a step toward me, his hands raised in a placating gesture that made my stomach churn. “Adella, listen to me. I found out after the crash. I found the blood-rune etched under the hood. I confronted him. I was ready to tear the Pack apart p>
“But you didn’t,” I said, my voice rising, trembling with a nausea that had nothing to do with my injuries. “You let me live in that house. You let me eat at the same table as the man who used dark magic to try and murder me. For seven years, Braydon. Seven years p>
𝖨n𝗍еn𝘀e 𝗿𝗼ma𝗇𝘤е о𝗇
“I made a deal!” Braydon shouted, his composure cracking. “If I had exposed him, the Council would have dissolved the Pack. You would have been sent to the foster system. A wolfless girl in the system? You would have been abused, Adella. Or worse. I made him swear never to touch you again. I bought your safety with my silence p>
“You didn’t buy my safety,” I spat, tears finally spilling over, hot and angry. “You kept me as a pet in a house of monsters. You used my life as leverage to play Alpha p>
“I did it for you!” Braydon insisted, reaching for the bed rail. “I protected you when no one else would p>
“Don’t you dare touch her p>
Dallas didn’t shout. He didn’t have to. He moved in a blur, placing his massive body between Braydon and me. The air around him crackled with ozone and lethal intent. His beast, Ragnar, was at the surface, his eyes swirling with a darkness that promised annihilation.
“Vance,” Dallas said, speaking the name aloud for our benefit.
The door burst open instantly. Vance Decker, Dallas’s Gamma, strode in — a mountain of a man with a shaved head and eyes like flint, followed by two Enforcers clad in the black tactical gear of the Blackwood Pack.
“Get them out of my sight,” Dallas ordered, gesturing to the Hydes. “Lock Marcus and Victoria in the holding cells. They await the Council’s judgment for treason and attempted murder. Send a team to sweep Hyde Manor for any remaining hexes or blood-magic artifacts p>
Vance nodded sharply. “Yes, Alpha p>
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