Chapter 449
“Write this down,” I ordered, fighting a violent cough. “If Adella contests the Rejection or refuses to sign, the Blackwood Pack will release forged evidence proving her late parents colluded with Rogues. Furthermore, all of Azalea Sterling’s trust funds and Pack resources will be frozen indefinitely.”
Harrison dropped his pen, horrified. “Alpha King, you cannot be serious. Framing Alaric and Elara Everett? This will destroy your reputation. It’s — it’s monstrous.”
My eyes flashed to pitch black, the Lycan aura bleeding into the room and suffocating the air. “Write it.”
It was an Alpha’s Command. Harrison gasped, his spine snapping straight as he scrambled to type the vicious addendum.
I needed her to have no choice. I needed her to take the money and run far, far away from the Silver Claws.
Then the suite doors burst open.
Adella stood in the doorway, her chest heaving, her beautiful eyes wide and bloodshot. The scent of her — rain-washed jasmine and pure sorrow — hit me so hard that Ragnar whimpered in my skull. She had seen the news. Her gaze swept the room. She saw me, half-naked on the sofa, the blood seeping through my bandages resembling the aftermath of violent, reckless passion. Then she saw Yara, standing by the bedroom door in my shirt.
The devastation that shattered Adella’s face nearly killed me on the spot.
I forced my expression into a mask of absolute ice. “You shouldn’t have come here, Adella.”
She crossed the room in three furious strides.
Her palm struck my cheek with a resounding crack. My head snapped to the side, but I didn’t flinch. I deserved worse.
Harrison, trembling, stepped forward and offered her the pen and the newly printed Rejection papers. Adella snatched the documents. She didn’t even read them. With a guttural cry of pure agony, she ripped the thick stack of papers in half, then in half again, throwing the shredded pieces directly into my face. They fluttered down onto my bare shoulders like snow.
She looked down at me, her eyes burning with a hatred so cold it froze the blood in my veins.
“I, Adella Everett, accept your rejection,” she whispered, her voice laced with venom.
The words triggered the ancient magic. A sickening snap echoed through my soul — as though someone had reached into my chest and torn my heart out with bare hands. I gripped the armrest, knuckles turning white, and swallowed a scream of pure agony.
“But I will not sign your papers,” Adella cried, tears finally spilling over her lashes. “I will not take your blood money. I will remain Adella Marshall — your wife in name, your Luna in title. You want to be free? Then I will be the cage you never escape.”
She spun on her heel and ran out the door, leaving the suite in a deafening silence.
The moment it clicked shut, the last thread holding me together snapped.
I pitched forward off the sofa and hit the expensive Persian rug. A violent convulsion wracked my spine, and I vomited a massive pool of black, poisoned blood onto the floor.
“Dallas!” Yara shouted, dropping the towel and rushing to my side alongside Duncan.
.