Chapter 349

Dallas opened his mouth to refuse, but I placed a hand on his chest. I could feel his heart pounding — the wild rhythm of a beast protecting its treasure.

“Dallas,” I said quietly.

He looked down at me, panic flaring in his eyes. “Adella, don’t. She is manipulative. She will try to break you.”

“I know,” I replied, not needing the mind-link to hear him. I turned to look at Gigi. She was broken, yes, but still dangerous. And if I ran now, I would always be the girl Dallas had to save.

“I’ll be there,” I told her.

“Adella,” Dallas hissed.

“I need to do this,” I said, squeezing his hand. “For me. And for us.”

Gigi nodded once — a slow, grim acknowledgment. “Tomorrow, then.”

We walked out of the drawing room and into the grand foyer. Dallas didn’t speak until we were outside, under the open sky. He pulled me against him, burying his face in my neck and inhaling deeply, as if to scrub the scent of that house from his memory.

“You didn’t have to agree to that,” he murmured against my skin.

“Yes, I did,” I whispered back, looking toward the sprawling gardens where the white stone walls of the sanctuary rose in the distance.

I had won the battle in the drawing room. But the war for my place in this family was far from over.

The Moon Goddess Garden was a masterpiece of deception. To the untrained eye, it was a sanctuary of peace — white stone walls draped in ivy, the air thick with the sweet, heady perfume of moonflowers blooming even under the morning sun. But as I walked toward the marble bench where Gigi Marshall sat, I felt no peace. I felt like a lamb walking voluntarily into a lion’s den.

Gigi didn’t look up as I approached. She was staring into the crystal-clear pond at the feet of the Goddess’s statue, her posture rigid, her hands clasped tightly in her lap.

“Ten o’clock sharp,” she said, her voice devoid of the warmth the sunlight offered. “Punctuality is a virtue. One of the few you possess, I imagine.”

I stopped a few feet away, refusing to sit unless invited, and refusing to bow. “You wanted to talk, Gigi. I’m here.”

She finally turned her gaze to me. Her eyes were cold and calculating, stripping me down to my very soul. “Dallas is a man of intense appetites. He sees something he wants, and he consumes it. Right now, you are a novelty, Adella. A break from the fierce, demanding she-wolves he is used to. But novelties fade.”

“I am his Mate,” I replied, my voice steady despite the tremor in my hands. “Not a toy.”

“You are wolfless,” she countered, the word dripping with venom. “Do you truly believe a creature as powerful as a Lycan can be satisfied with a human lifespan? With a womb that might produce weak, furless offspring? You are a genetic dead end for this family.”

She reached into her purse and pulled out the same yellowed envelope from the night before, placing it on the stone bench between us.