Chapter <b>33 </b>
Third <b>Person’s </b>POV
Freya could only <b>feel </b>the bitter sting of irony.
Three <b>years </b>as Caelum’s mate–three years of giving everything she had for him and his kin–yet they saw none of it.
Foolish, that she had once believed they were family. Foolish, that she had poured herself out for them without keeping anything <b>back</b>.
“Alright,” Giselle sneered, her voice dripping with malice. “You can do whatever you want with this she–wolf. The worse, the better.”
The two brick–shouldered males exchangedscivious grins and stepped toward her.
Freya’s eyes locked on Eleanor and Giselle. “Have you even thought about Caelum? No matter what else, I am still his mate. He will not allow this.”
Even as she spoke, her right hand–hidden beneath the fall of her gown–clutched her phone.
The screen was facedown, her fingertips gliding across it in quick, precise taps.
She didn’t need to look; muscle memory, forged in the Iron Fang Recon Unit, let her hit everymand without hesitation.
Caelum was here in the Royal Court Hotel. If he answered, he could be here in moments–enough to stop this before it began.
3
“My brother already has Aurora,” Giselleughed, derision curling her lips. “Do you think he cares? Even if he knew, he wouldn’t lift a w for you.”
Freya’s lips pressed into a thin line. The call had gone through, the phone volume turned so low only her ears could catch the Freya’s lips pressed into a thin line. The call had gone thre faintest hum.
Downstairs in the banquet hall, Caelum nced at his phone. Freya’s name lit the screen.
Before he could answer, Aurora’s voice chimed in sweetly, “It’s from Freya? If she’s upset that I’m here with you tonight, perhaps I should leave and let her attend instead.”
“Don’t bother with her, Caelum replied, dismissing it with a flick of his thumb as he cut the call. To him, her calls only ever broughtints and needless entanglement. He had more important business tonight. They could talkter–after the banquet.
A stir rippled through the hall. Aurora’s gaze sharpened toward the entrance. “Ss Whitmor is here. We should greet him.”
Caelum looked <b>up </b>as the Alpha of the Irond Coalition entered. Ss’s aristocratic bearing was cold enough to frost steel; the sharp nes of his <b>face </b>and themand in his ck eyes made him seem born above the rest of the room.
That was the kind of wolf who ruled from the heights.
Caelum almostughed at himself for ever thinking such a male could truly be interested in Freya. Ss must have only been acting out of courtesy when he had returned her to the Grafton estate. The two of them were from utterly different worlds.
Back in Room 1205, the moment Caelum severed <b>the </b><b>call</b>, the <b>weight </b>in Freya’s chest sank like stone.
Cold. So cold.
She had given him chances–more than <b>once</b><b>. </b>Each one had only left her more frozen inside.
Her gaze lifted to Eleanor and Giselle. “We were family for three years. If this ends now, I will let it go<b>.</b>”
Giselle’sugh was sharp as broken ss. “You think you can let it go? Even if <b>I </b>agreed, these two won’t. I picked them for you–strong, eager–because we’re ‘family.“”
Freya lowered hershes, her fingers moving over her hidden phone again. None of them noticed the tiny camera fixed in the far corner, its red light the size of a pinprick.
<b>She </b><b>had </b>ced it the moment she entered and caught the sickly<b>–</b><b>sweet </b>scent of knockout fumes, masking her breath as she <b>set </b><b>the </b><b>device </b>in <b>ce</b>.
They thought this <b>was </b>about a hundred million.
She would make it about exposure<b>. </b>
<b>Her </b>phone slid into the Royal Court Hotel’swork like a wolf slipping through an unguarded fence. If Caelum was <b>downstairs </b><b>at </b>the banquet<b>, </b>then he–and every wolf there–would see his family’s true faces.
In the grand hall below, Caelum and Aurora stood before Ss Whitmor.
“Lord Whitmor, an honor,” Caelum began. “At the Runestone Groundsst time, I didn’t get the chance to properly—”
A voice from the crowd interrupted. “What’s going on with the screen?”
Then a second voice rang out, unmistakable to Caelum–his mother’s<b>, </b>sharp and venomous:
“Hurry up. I want her gone with nothing. Not a single coin.”
Caelum froze.
Caelum
He turned toward the great disy at the front of the hall. Where moments ago it had shown the banquet’s wee crest, it now streamed a live feed–his mother, his sister, Freya, and two unfamiliar males in a hotel room.
Freya was slumped against the bedframe, the two males closing in with predatory intent.
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