apter 231


    Third Person’s POV


    Lana’s words instantly sharpened Kade’s attention.


    <b>+5 </b>Free Coins


    “I just saw Aurora walk into that roadside inn with some man,” Lana whispered, her voiceced with suspicion. “It felt wrong. Let’s go inside too–see what exactly she’s hiding.”


    The wolf–borne instinct in her gut screamed of deceit. Between Aurora and that man, there was something rotten, something unfit to be exposed under moonlight.


    “Aurora?” Kade’s eyes narrowed into cold slits. He loathed the Bluemoon Beta’s daughter with a visceral disgust. If there was filth to uncover in her life, he would dly rip back the veil and watch her dignity


    burn.


    “Perfect,” he muttered, his wolf stirring under his skin. “If there’s scandal, I’ll be the one to drag it into the open.”


    They exchanged a knowing nce, then moved together toward the inn’s shadowed doorway.


    Across the street, a sleek ck car rolled toward the traffic lights. In the front seat, a man leaned forward, squinting through the ss.


    “Wait–Victor, isn’t that your young wolfling? Your family’s little stormbringer? He’s walking with a woman. <i>What</i>, did he finally get himself a mate?”


    From the backseat, Victor lifted his gazezily toward the sidewalk. One nce, one heartbeatter, his pupils contracted sharply. His body stilled, the wolf within him going rigid. His eyes locked on the feminine silhouette beside his nephew. Even at a distance, even from behind, he knew her.


    Lana Rook.


    The name hit him like a silver–tipped de.


    “What the hell–did they just walk into an inn?” the man in the passenger seat eximed, baffled. “Victor, your wolfling’s got taste, hasn’t he? But shouldn’t he be at a five–star lodge if he’s trying to charm a she- wolf? Not a filthy roadside den.”


    “Turn back. Stop the car.” Victor’s voice cut like winter steel.


    The driver hesitated. “What?”


    “I said, stop the damn car<i>.</i>” His tone was a low growl now, lethal and final.


    Kevin caught sight of Victor’s face in the reflection of the rearview mirror and fell silent. He had known Victor for decades, and only once before had he seen such a storm darken his friend’s expression.


    It was years ago, the night Victor received a call. A breakup: A severing. He hadn’t spoken a word then, only carried a darkness in his eyes that threatened to consume him whole. Kevin had thought his friend had gone mad. The meticulouswyer, the future Alpha–inheritor, so disciplined and controlled–reduced to a beast prowling in grief.


    O


    <b>11:56 </b><b>Mon</b><b>, </b><b>15 </b><b>Sept </b>


    That same darkness was in his face now.


    <b>+5 </b>Free Coins


    The driver braked hard, pulling over. Victor stepped out, his coat sweeping behind him, a cold presence emanating like a blizzard rolling off a mountain peak. Kevin scrambled to follow, muttering under his breath.


    “Don’t tell me you’re really going after your nephew… He’s old enough to make his own messes. And that woman–damn, why does she look so damn familiar? Like I’ve seen her somewhere before. Wait. Hold on


    The realization struck him mid–sentence. His words faltered, choked.


    “…like your ex.”


    Victor didn’t answer. He didn’t need to. The killing frost in his aura was confirmation enough.


    Kevin’s throat went dry. Spirits above, was it possible? That woman–the one Victor had once loved, the one everyone swore was too small for him, too insignificant. A girl with no status, no name worth a song, who had walked away from the heir of the Ashfords like he was nothing.


    And Victor had never taken another mate since. Not once.


    People whispered he must still crave her, but Victor had dismissed every mention with a mask of indifference<i>. </i>Kevin had believed it was over, a trivial past. Yet seeing him now, bristling with such icy rage, it was clear. It had never been over.


    Meanwhile, inside the inn, Aurora stepped into the dim, peeling room behind Lee. Her nose wrinkled in distaste at the stench of mold and dust. She despised such ces.


    “What do you want?” she snapped.


    Lee’s smile was sharp, feral. “To talk about my payment. The little matter of the tail sum we agreed on.”


    Aurora stiffened. The tail sum. Nearly fifty million marks.


    Her blood ran cold. She had no intention of ever paying him. At the time, she had strung him along, promising him the moon once she became Caelum’s Luna. By then, who would care whether she was his true savior or not?


    But now–now she wasn’t Luna yet. If Lee revealed the truth, if Caelum discovered she was nothing but a fraud…


    “I don’t have that kind of money,” Aurora hissed. “I’m not Grafton’s Luna. Not yet.”


    “But <b>you </b>are still the Bluemoon Beta’s daughter,” Lee countered, voiceced with mockery. “Money can always be found, if you’re desperate enough. One month. If I don’t see the tail sum, I’ll tell Caelum everything. That you were never is savior. That you deceived him from the start.”


    Aurora’s wolf wed at her insides, furious and afraid. If the lie copsed now, she would lose everything -the Alpha, the alliance, the future she had wed toward with bloody nails.


    And she knew Lee wasn’t bluffing.


    <b>2/2 </b>