Chapter 577
Duncan Whitaker kept his eyes on the road, his Beta aura steady and focused.
“Duncan,” Adella said softly, breaking the quiet. “Our first stop is the Council Archives. I need to officially revoke my signature on the Decree of Severance.”
My chest tightened. A cold spike of unnatural panic pierced through the calm Ragnar had finally found. That document was my last barrier — the final out I had meticulously crafted for her.
“Adella, wait,” I rasped, my voice rough. “We should keep it filed. Just in case. If something happens to me, if my enemies retaliate, that document is a safety net. It protects you and the pup from being dragged down with me.”
Adella shifted in her seat, turning to face me completely. She reached out, her soft hands enveloping mine. Her clear, perceptive eyes stripped away every layer of my pride, seeing straight into the darkest, most broken corners of my soul.
“That wasn’t a safety net, Dallas,” she whispered, her voice trembling with a profound, heartbreaking tenderness. “It was a cage you built for yourself. Because you were terrified, and you couldn’t bear to let me go.”
The breath was knocked from my lungs. I stared at her as the walls of my self-loathing crumbled to dust under the weight of her absolute truth. I had masked my selfishness as noble sacrifice — but she saw the desperate, terrified man underneath, the one who would rather die than live without his mate.
Words failed me. I could only offer a slow, defeated nod, surrendering the last of my secrets to the woman who held my entire world in her hands.
Adella POV
Dallas’s defeated nod hung in the quiet cabin of the armored SUV. The suffocating tension that had strangled us for months finally snapped, dissolving into the heavy, shared air between us. I squeezed his hand, feeling the faint tremor in his massive fingers.
“To the Council Archives, Duncan,” I repeated softly.
Duncan met my eyes in the rearview mirror, a faint smile touching his stoic Beta features. “Right away, Luna.”
The official revocation of the Decree of Severance took less than twenty minutes, but watching that cursed parchment burn in the Archives’ incinerator felt like shedding a suffocating skin. The cage was gone.
By the time we arrived at The Sanctuary, the adrenaline of the morning had faded, leaving Dallas pale and drained. The VVIP medical suite smelled of sterile antiseptics, but beneath it was the comforting, familiar presence of my mate. Once Dallas was settled in his wheelchair to rest, I stepped out into the quiet hallway to give him a moment of peace.
Vance Decker was waiting for me.
The Gamma’s flinty eyes were heavy with a sorrow that made my breath catch. He stood rigidly, torn between his absolute loyalty to his Alpha and a desperate need to help him heal.
“Luna,” Vance murmured, his voice rough. “There’s something you need to know. Something he forbade me from telling you.”
I braced myself, my heart pounding. “Tell me, Vance.”