Chapter 405
I didn’t need to be told twice. I raised my left arm and pulled back the oversized sleeve of the janitor’s uniform. Running across my pulse point was a jagged, faded white scar — a permanent mark from a childhood accident.
Duncan’s breath hitched. The color drained from his face as he looked from my wrist to the screen and back again.
“I told you about that scar, Liam,” Dallas rasped, his grip on my hand tightening. “The night my mother died.”
Liam nodded grimly. “And here is where the Luna actually was.”
He tapped the screen again. A new video played — clear, undeniable footage of the medical wing hallway, showing Nurse Anya shoving me into the consultation room and locking the heavy door from the outside.
The silence that followed was absolute.
The tablet slipped from Duncan’s trembling fingers and clattered to the floor. He stared at the evidence — unable to look away, unable to speak — as the full, horrifying weight of what he had almost done crashed down on him. What Braydon Hyde had manipulated him into doing.
I pressed my back against the cold tiles of the ensuite bathroom, holding my breath as the electronic lock chimed. Heavy boots marched into the suite, bringing with them an oppressive, suffocating tension.
“Alpha,” Duncan’s voice was a low, dangerous rumble. “The paperwork is ready.”
I peeked through the narrow crack in the door. Duncan slammed a thick folder onto the nightstand. The Pack lawyer stood rigidly behind him, his eyes fixed on the floor.
“Sign it, Dallas,” Duncan urged, his tone laced with a toxic mixture of grief and fury. “Sever the bond. For all we know, she’s already on her way to Hyde Manor with—”
Silence stretched, thick and agonizing. I waited for Dallas to defend me, to tell his Beta the truth about the decoy. Instead, Dallas let out a ragged exhale. His voice sounded exhausted, completely stripped of the fierce Lycan energy from moments ago.
“What if… what if you’re right, Duncan?”
My heart stopped. The icy claws of betrayal tore through my chest, freezing the blood in my veins. He was giving up? After the kiss, after the truth, he was letting Duncan’s lies poison him again?
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t hide. The thought of him signing that paper — tearing us apart — overrode every ounce of fear in my body.
I shoved the bathroom door open. It hit the wall with a sharp crack.
Duncan spun around, his eyes widening in absolute shock before narrowing into pure, unadulterated hatred. “You,” he snarled, stepping toward me. “Where did the traitor—”
I ignored him entirely and marched straight to Dallas’s bedside. Dallas didn’t hesitate. His large hand shot out, wrapping tightly around my fingers. The sparks erupted instantly — a rush of warm, grounding electricity that chased away my panic and anchored me to him.
He pulled me close to his side, his stormy eyes locking onto his Beta. The exhaustion vanished from his face, replaced by the terrifying, suffocating weight of his full aura.
“She stays,” Dallas commanded, his voice vibrating with the absolute, undeniable authority of an Alpha’s Command.