Chapter 596
But as I pulled the cup away and watched him close his eyes to rest, a cold spike of anxiety tightened in my chest. Dallas had accepted the lie for now, but he would inevitably question his Beta about it. If I wanted to keep this fragile peace intact, I needed to find Duncan Whitaker immediately.
Adella POV
Two hours earlier.
The sterile hallway of The Sanctuary felt like an icebox. I pushed open the heavy door to the Beta’s comms room, the air inside humming with high-tech servers and the faint, crackling ozone of magical shielding runes.
Duncan Whitaker stood by the monitors, his usually stoic composure cracking under severe distress.
“You want me to lie to the Alpha King?” Duncan asked, his voice tight, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the edge of the console. “Luna, that is treason. My Inner Wolf is clawing at my chest just considering it. We do not deceive the Alpha.”
“I am saving our King from himself, Duncan,” I said, my voice leaving absolutely no room for argument. I stepped closer, projecting every ounce of my Luna authority. “If he believes he can push me away to protect me, he will. The Protectorate Clause must be real to him. You are his most trusted brother. He will believe you.”
Duncan swallowed hard, his jaw clenching as he waged a brutal war between his inherent duty to his Alpha and the long-term survival of our Pack. He had witnessed Dallas’s self-destructive spiral. He knew I was right.
Finally, he let out a ragged breath and gave a stiff nod. “Fine. I will corroborate your interpretation. But Dallas is a tactician. If he demands to see the original documents, I will tell him the Elders are performing their annual magical purification on the archives. That will lock him out for at least a month.”
“Deal,” I whispered, a profound wave of relief washing over me. I had just secured the cage of love I was building around my mate.
Dallas POV
Present.
The phantom fire of the silver still chewed relentlessly at my severed nerve endings. I lay in the dimly lit recovery suite, staring at the small plastic cup in Adella’s hand. Three dark, herbal pills rested inside.
“No,” I rasped, my voice carrying a weak but stubborn growl. “That potion suppresses the Inner Wolf. It will put Ragnar to sleep.”
“It will stop the agonizing pain so your spine can actually heal, Dallas,” Adella countered calmly, not retreating an inch.
“It makes me a numb, useless shell!” I snapped, my chest heaving as I fought the physical torment. She didn’t understand. Losing my connection to Ragnar, even temporarily, felt like carving a hollow void into my soul. Without my beast, I couldn’t sense threats. I couldn’t protect my Pack. I couldn’t protect her.
Adella placed a gentle, cool hand over my racing heart. Her scent of Moonflowers and rain washed over me, soothing the jagged edges of my panic. “An Alpha blinded by excruciating pain is far more dangerous to this Pack than a temporarily sleeping wolf. Let me take care of you.”