Chapter 526
“He still has some fire in him,” I told my Beta through a weak, strained mind-link. “A pity. If he’d taken the money, I would have had to find another way to break him. This is cleaner.”
Now, Braydon would default. The Pack Honor Clause would be triggered, and I could legally seize the Everett Trust—keeping it out of Thorne’s hands and safely under my control.
Adella
The glowing shreds of the two-hundred-million-dollar check fluttered to the mahogany floor like dying fireflies.
Marcus Hyde’s presence exploded, thick and suffocating with pure fury. He gripped the edge of the massive table, his knuckles turning white. “You arrogant, jealous fool!” Marcus roared, his voice vibrating the crystal glasses on the sideboard. “You just destroyed our Pack’s last lifeline!”
Braydon didn’t even flinch at his father’s wrath. He dropped to his knees, his fingers brushing the dead, torn parchment. When he looked up at me, the feral possessiveness in his eyes had fractured into desperate defeat.
“I’m sorry, Adella,” Braydon rasped. “I was selfish. But I won’t let you sell yourself to Thorne. I’ll accept Dallas’s terms. I’ll Mark Chelsi Parrish.”
A wave of absolute disgust washed over me. He was willing to throw his life away—to chain himself to a woman he despised—just to keep me from another Alpha. It wasn’t love. It was a cage.
“I don’t care what you do with your life, Braydon,” I said, my voice slicing through the heavy air. “You made your choice. Now I’ll make mine.”
I stepped past him and walked toward the door. Marcus’s voice stopped me.
“Where are you going?” the old Alpha demanded.
I turned back, my hand on the doorframe. “To fight Dallas my way. Without your son’s jealousy destroying everything I touch.”
Marcus let out a harsh, breathless laugh. “With what money, Adella?”
“With his reputation,” I countered, my blood running hot with a new and dangerous clarity. “I am calling a press conference—human media and RogueNet both. I am going to stand in front of those cameras as the rejected, wolfless Luna of the Alpha King, and I am going to expose exactly how Dallas Marshall uses his billionaire empire to terrorize the innocent.”
Marcus paled. “That is suicide. You are poking a dying Lycan.”
“I’m not trying to outspend him,” I said. “I’m going to make his board of directors and the Pack Elders question his mental stability. I will make him a liability to his own throne. If I can’t get my parents’ legacy back with money, I’ll take it with the truth.”
Braydon rose to his feet, his chest heaving as he stared at me. “She’s right. It’s the only way to hit him where it hurts.”
Marcus looked between his son and me. The fight drained out of the old Alpha, leaving only a weary surrender. He gave me a slow, heavy nod. “The Hyde Pack is yours to command, Adella. Do it.”
I didn’t thank him. I walked out, my mind already racing with the words I would say to the cameras.