Chapter 383
She flinched as if physically struck, tears welling in her eyes. I didn’t wait for her to speak. I stormed past her, leaving the penthouse and plunging into the unforgiving night. I needed to drown the beast before it burned my city to the ground.
Braydon POV
The freezing rain of the Hyde Estate garden washed away the lingering scent of the pathetic little scene I had staged upstairs.
Suki stepped out from the shadows of the terrace. She was shivering, but she wore the exact same silk nightgown Adella had on during that doomed video call. The dark wig clung to her face, perfectly mimicking Adelia’s silhouette in the gloom.
“Make it look real,” I murmured, pulling Suki roughly against my chest. I buried my hands in her hair and crashed my lips onto hers.
From the dark hedges, a camera shutter clicked silently.
I pulled back and wiped the rain from my jaw. My untraceable ghost phone vibrated in my pocket. I checked the encrypted message from the photographer.
Phase two complete.
I forwarded the image file directly to the Lycan King’s private number.
“He says it’s perfect,” Suki whispered, wrapping her arms around herself against the cold.
I pulled a folded check from my jacket and dropped it at her feet. “Go inside. Adelia is already in a car speeding back to the city, desperate to play the devoted mate. She thinks she can fix this.”
I looked out into the dark, rain-swept driveway, a cold smile stretching across my face. “Doubt is a weed, Suki. Once planted, it grows in the dark. Every shadow becomes a ghost.”
Dallas POV
The Obsidian Den was a tomb of polished black stone buried deep beneath Marshall Tower. It absorbed all light and sound, but it couldn’t silence the roaring in my head.
I sat in the corner booth, the air heavy with expensive whiskey and old leather. Duncan Whitaker sat across from me, his Beta logic grating against my frayed sanity.
“Dallas, you need to breathe,” Duncan urged, his voice steady but strained. “You chose her. That connection isn’t fragile. There has to be an explanation for why he was there. You know Braydon plays games.”
My ghost phone vibrated against the dark wood table.
I picked it up. An encrypted image file.
I opened it.
The air left my lungs. It was a photograph — grainy from the rain and the distance, but unmistakable. Adella. Wearing the exact same silk nightgown I had just seen her in. Wrapped in Braydon Hyde’s arms in the garden, their lips locked in a passionate, desperate kiss.
It was a silver blade twisting directly into my soul. The last thread of my humanity snapped.
She lies! Ragnar’s roar was apocalyptic, shaking the very foundations of my mind. The one we chose — she gives herself to him! Kill them!
I didn’t scream. I didn’t shatter my glass. The absolute zero of betrayal froze the blood in my veins, leaving behind nothing but a hollow, echoing void. I slid the phone slowly across the table.