?Chapter 625:


    Honor. Cole had stepped back to repay Death Thorn for saving his life.


    Her hand never reached for the ring. She remained silent, watching him closely, a slow, almost mischievous smile creeping across her face. A wicked sense of anticipation began to stir inside her. The thought of telling him the truth—that she was Death Thorn—was almost too delicious to resist. She couldn’t wait to see the shock on his face when the revtion hit him.


    Cole’s voice broke the silence.


    “If I have a rpse again before you find a cure… and if I don’t make it, ze Wildfire will be yours. Everything I’ve built—it’s yours to lead.” He paused, his eyes earnest. “But if things ever escte with Thorn Rose again, I’m asking you to show them mercy. Pull back if you can. It’s the least I can do to honor my savior.”


    Elliana shed a sly smile, her voice light butced with mischief.


    “Oh, you don’t need to worry. I’m one of Death Thorn’s most loyal fans. I’d do anything for her.” She leaned in just a little, her eyes gleaming. “So you’d better hope nothing happens to you, Cole. Because the second it does, I’m handing your empire over to her—gift-wrapped, with a bow.”


    Cole looked at her, stunned.


    “Wait… you know Death Thorn?”


    Elliana let out a soft, amusedugh, rich with hidden meaning.


    “Know her? That doesn’t even begin to cover it. We’re way closer than that.”


    Cole’s expression twisted with confusion. His mind scrambled through every woman Elliana had known. But none of them matched the infamous Death Thorn’s profile.


    “How did your paths first cross?” he asked, still trying to make sense of it.


    “There was no crossing,” she said, her tone t and deliberate. “She’s been part of me from the very beginning. Some things are simply written from birth.”


    Cole’s eyes widened. A wild, impossible thought sparked in his mind, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it aloud.


    Suddenly, Elliana let out a raw shout of anger and hurled herself at him, her fists pounding against his chest. When that didn’t quell her fury, her hands darted to his throat, gripping tightly as if to choke him.


    “You absolute bastard!” she hissed, her voice trembling with buried rage. “Do you even realize what I went through to build Thorn Rose? What did I ever do to deserve being hunted like prey? You chased me for years, Cole—years! I nearly died because of you more times than I can count!”


    Her grip trembled, her whole body shaking with fury.


    “I’ve imagined your head—severed, rotting, sealed in ss—just so I could curse it whenever the pain got too much! Every nightmare I wed my way out of in Delta had your name on it! And right now, I swear—I should squeeze the life out of you just to breathe easier!”


    Cole made no move to defend himself. He weed the pressure of her hands around his throat, his eyes locked on her stormy, radiant face. Each word from her lips struck him like a de, and in that moment, rity shattered through him. The truth—the one he hadn’t dared believe—hit him with devastating certainty.


    Elliana was Death Thorn.


    And instead of fear or anger, what surged through Cole was joy, so fierce that it knocked the breath from his lungs. His hands moved gently, finding her waist, pulling her close until there was no space between them. His voice was barely a whisper, husky and reverent.


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