Chapter 556
Two heavily armed Dire Guard Warriors materialized from the hall, their tactical gear rustling as they hauled Marcus to his feet. He thrashed against their iron grip, his eyes wild with venom.
“You have no idea what’s coming for all of you Marshalls!” Marcus spat, his words echoing ominously through the chamber as the heavy doors slammed shut behind him.
The remaining Elders dispersed quickly, thoroughly cowed by the display of absolute power. Soon, only Gigi and I remained in the cavernous room.
“Thank you, Eleanor,” I breathed, the adrenaline finally ebbing from my veins.
She struck her cane against the floor. The sharp crack startled me. “I didn’t do it for you, Azalea. Nor for Dallas. I did it for the future of the bloodline.”
She stepped closer, her voice dropping to a low, urgent whisper. “Adella is pregnant.”
My heart stuttered. The air left my lungs entirely. “What? How do you—”
“A shadow payment routed through Dallas’s private medical accounts to a top human obstetrician in Zurich. Dr. Evans,” Gigi explained, her eyes darkening with a fierce, terrifying protectiveness. “Dallas is completely blind to it.”
“We have to tell him,” I urged instinctively.
“No!” Gigi hissed, her grip tightening on her cane. “He must remain blind. You know how broken he is. If he finds out about a pup he believes he can never mark or protect, his twisted sense of sacrifice will compel her to get rid of it — to ‘save’ her from his enemies. He will destroy his own legacy just to keep her breathing.”
I stared at the matriarch as the gravity of her words settled over me like a lead weight. We were now the sole architects of a dangerous lie, bound together to protect an unborn heir.
But as I turned toward the rain-streaked windows, my gaze drifting to the distant, jagged peaks of the Rockies where Adella was hiding, a knot of deep unease tightened in my chest.
Gigi was wrong. A pup wasn’t a death sentence — it was a lifeline. And an Alpha King deserved to know what he was truly fighting for.
Adella POV
The Rockies safe house was a gilded cage of exposed brick and high ceilings. The air inside carried the sharp scent of burning pine from the massive stone fireplace, its warmth spreading through the room in steady, crackling waves.
Azalea pulled back from our embrace, her eyes dropping immediately to the visible swell of my stomach beneath my loose cashmere sweater. The joy on her face hardened quickly into something fierce and demanding.
“You have to tell him, Adella,” she pleaded, her voice carrying slightly in the large room.
“He can never know,” I said, the smile vanishing from my lips. I wrapped my arms protectively around my waist.
“He’s acting like a radioactive, self-exiled idiot!” Azalea argued, stepping closer. “He thinks he has nothing left to live for. This pup — his heir — changes everything!”