Chapter 347
He leaned down and pressed a hard, possessive kiss to my forehead — marking me in front of her. Then he turned and walked to the heavy oak door. He didn’t close it. He left it ajar, a dark gap that promised he was just on the other side, listening.
As his footsteps faded, the room grew colder. I was alone in the lion’s den, without a wolf of my own.
Gigi smiled. It was the smile of a serpent spotting a mouse.
“Now,” she purred, gesturing to the silk sofa opposite her. “Let us have a real conversation. Girl to… whatever you are.”
The heavy oak door clicked shut, but the latch didn’t engage fully. A sliver of darkness remained — Dallas’s silent promise that he was listening, ready to tear the world apart if I so much as whimpered.
Gigi didn’t offer me tea. She didn’t offer me a seat. She simply walked to an antique writing desk, her heels clicking against the hardwood floor like the ticking of a countdown clock.
“You are brave, child,” she said, her back to me. “Or perhaps just foolish. It is often hard to tell the difference with your kind.”
“My kind?” I asked, keeping my voice steady despite the heart hammering against my ribs.
“Wolfless,” she spat, turning to face me. She held a thick, yellowed envelope, which she tossed onto the low coffee table between us. It landed with a heavy thud, sliding across the polished wood. “Dallas is infatuated. The bond is a powerful drug, I admit. But drugs wear off. When the haze clears, he will look at you and see what I see: a genetic dead end. A liability.”
I looked at the envelope, then back at her. “I am his Mate. That isn’t a drug. It’s a law of nature.”
Gigi laughed — a dry, brittle sound. “Nature is cruel, Adella. It weeds out the weak. But I am not without mercy.” She gestured to the envelope. “Open it.”
I hesitated, then reached for it. My fingers trembled slightly as I undid the clasp. Inside was a deed — ancient, heavy parchment stamped with the royal seal. I scanned the legal text, and my breath hitched.
The Silver Moon Territory.
“Your parents’ land,” Gigi purred, watching me closely. “Or what’s left of it. I have pulled strings. I can have the Council reinstate the territory. You would be its Alpha Female. You could rebuild. You could be a Queen in your own right, instead of a pet in my grandson’s court.”
It was a bribe. A gilded cage. She was offering me a kingdom of ash and bones — a graveyard to rule over — just to get me away from Dallas.
“You want to exile me,” I whispered, understanding the depth of her disdain. “You want to pay me to leave.”
“I am offering you dignity,” she corrected sharply. “Take it. Go back to your ruins. Leave the Lycan bloodline to those who can actually carry it.”
Slowly, deliberately, I placed the deed back on the table and slid it toward her.