Chapter 384
Duncan looked down. The color drained instantly from his face. His jaw tightened, every rational defense dying in his throat. He looked up at me, the shock mirrored in his own eyes. He had no defense for a traitor.
I leaned back into the shadows, my voice dropping to a chilling, dead calm.
“Tell the Elders to prepare the Rejection ceremony.” I paused, letting the silence stretch like a wire pulled taut. “And find me the serpent. I’m going to enjoy tearing him apart.”
Adelia
The harsh morning light pierced the floor-to-ceiling windows of the penthouse, offering no warmth to the suffocating grief that filled the room. I sat on the edge of the sofa, pulling a woven blanket over Azalea’s trembling shoulders. The air was thick with the sour scent of a hangover and fresh heartbreak.
“He didn’t even call,” Azalea choked out, her eyes swollen and red. She clutched her phone to her chest. “A text, Adella. Forrest sent a text from the airport saying ‘it’s for the best.’ What a coward.” She buried her face in my shoulder, sobbing uncontrollably. “And Dad didn’t come home. Why do the men we care about just abandon us?”
I stroked her hair, my own heart heavy with a sickening dread. Dallas’s absence was a gaping void in my chest — something deep inside me ached with a hollow grief I couldn’t name. The distance between us felt wrong, unnatural, like a chord that should have been resonating had gone silent.
Suddenly, Azalea gasped. Her body went rigid, her eyes glazing over as she received a mind-link. When she blinked back to reality, every trace of color had drained from her face.
“Azalea? What is it?”
“It’s Duncan,” she whispered, her voice shaking. “He says Dad is at the Obsidian Den. He’s… destroying the place. He refuses to come home.”
“I need to go to him.”
“No,” Azalea interrupted, a tear slipping down her cheek. “Duncan told me to tell you exactly what Dad said.” She swallowed hard, her eyes filled with pity and horror. “He said the Moon Goddess made a mistake. He said you’re not his Mate — you’re Braydon Hyde’s whore.”
The words hit me like a silver blade plunging into my soul. The air vanished from my lungs. Whore. The sheer venom of that accusation tore through me, leaving me gasping in physical agony.
Before I could even begin to process the devastation, the chime of the private elevator echoed through the foyer.
The metal doors slid open and Beta Duncan Whitaker stepped out. His tailored suit was immaculate, but his eyes held a cold, unforgiving hostility I had never seen directed at me before. He didn’t bow. He didn’t offer a greeting.
He walked over and dropped a heavy, gold-embossed envelope onto the glass coffee table.
“An invitation to the Luna’s Hope Charity Gala tonight,” Duncan said, his voice stripped of all respect. “The Alpha King requests your presence — if you remember that you are his Luna. If you’re too busy being Braydon Hyde’s property, you are excused.”
I stood up, my hands trembling with a mixture of hurt and rising fury. “Duncan, please. What is going on? What did Braydon do?”