67 Chapter 67


    Damien’s POV 1


    When Caleb mentioned seeing Anna before, something sharp and urgent twisted in my chest. I leaned forward slightly, my alpha


    instincts suddenly on high alert.


    “Where exactly did you see her?” I asked, my voice carefully controlled despite the storm brewing beneath the surface.


    Caleb stared out the window for what felt like an eternity, his brow creased in concentration. The city lights streaked past us in blurs of gold and white, but he seemedpletely oblivious to the scenery, lost in some distant memory.


    Caleb’s fingers drummed against his thigh in an absent rhythm, his eyes still fixed on some point beyond the ss. Then suddenly, his


    entire body went rigid.


    “Oh my God,” he breathed, his hand flying to his forehead as if the memory had physically struck him. “Oh my *God*, I can’t believe I


    didn’t make the connection sooner!”


    “What?” I leaned forward, every muscle in my body coiled tight. “What do you remember?”


    “It was five years ago!” Caleb spun to face me, his eyes wide with the kind of shocked recognition that made my stomach drop to


    somewhere around my ankles. “Five years ago, at the Moonlight Grand Hotel!”


    The Moonlight Grand. The same hotel where I’d spent that unforgettable night with my mystery woman. The same hotel where I’d left


    my pendant beside a sleeping figure I’d never been able to find again.


    Tell me everything,” I said, my voiceing out rougher than I’d intended. “Every single detail.”


    Caleb ran both hands through his hair, his expression cycling between amazement and disgust as the memories came flooding back. “I was there on a job-some rich guy’s vintage Porsche had broken down in the hotel’s underground parking garage. Real piece of work,


    that car. Took me most of the night to get her running again.”


    “Get to the point about Anna,” I interrupted, though my heart was already hammering against my ribs.


    “Right, right!” Caleb waved a hand impatiently. “So there I was, around six in the morning, packing up my tools and thinking about


    breakfast, when this… *creature* came stumbling out of the hotel’s service entrance.”


    The way he said ‘creature’ made my lips twitch despite everything, “Creature?”


    Caleb shuddered dramatically. “Picture this: a woman wearing what used to be a hotel cleaning uniform-you know, those hideous


    polyester things-except it looked like she’d been through a blender. Hair sticking up in every direction, makeup smeared all over her


    face… well, let’s just say she looked rough.”


    Caleb leaned back against the seat, his expression a mixture of horror and dark amusement. “The smell. Sweet Jesus, the smell. It was


    like someone had dumped an entire perfume factory into a garbage disposal and then lit it on fire.”


    Despite the growing knot of dread in my stomach, I found myself fighting back augh. “That bad?”


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    67 Chapter 67


    “Worse. I’m talking eye-watering, nose-burning, make-you-question-your-will-to-live levels of awful.” Caleb gestured wildly with his


    hands. “And tonight, when she leaned into the car window and batted her eyshes at me, it was the exact same scent. I swear I had


    shbacks.”


    The humor drained from the moment as the implications hit me full force. “What was she doing outside the hotel?”


    He paused, seeming to gather his thoughts, then continued with the careful precision of someone recounting important evidence.


    “She was clutching something in her hands-something that caught the early morning light and threw it back in these brilliant golden


    shes. At first, I thought maybe it was brass or some cheap costume jewelry, but when she got closer…” Caleb shook his head slowly.


    “Damien, it was beautiful. Intricate craftsmanship, obviously expensive. Real gold, unless I miss my guess.”


    My mouth wentpletely dry. “A pendant?”


    “A pendant,” Caleb confirmed, his eyes never leaving my face. “Shaped like a wolf, with incredibly detailed engravings. The kind of work


    you see in high-end jewelry stores, not clutched in the hands of a desperate hotel cleaningdy at dawn.”


    The world tilted sideways. Everything I thought I knew about that night, about Anna, about the woman I’d been searching for—all of it


    crumbled like a house of cards in a hurricane.


    “She was trying to sell it,” I said, though it came out more like a question, a desperate hope that somehow I was wrong about what this


    meant.


    **Trying* to sell it?” Caleb let out a bark of bitterughter. “Damien, she was practically throwing herself at people’s feet, begging them


    to buy it. I watched her approach at least six different people before she got to me, and the desperation on her face…” He trailed off,


    shaking his head. “It was ugly to watch.”


    The leather armrest creaked under my grip. “What exactly did she say to you?”


    “Oh, it was a real performance.” Caleb’s voice took on a mocking, high-pitched tone as he mimicked Anna’s words. “Please, mister, I need the money for my sick grandmother’s medicine! This belonged to my dear departed aunt, but I have to sell it to pay for food! The whole


    sob story, delivered with all the sincerity of a carnival barker.””


    “And you didn’t buy it.”


    “Hell no, I didn’t buy it!” Caleb looked at me like I’d suggested he juggle fire while riding a unicycle. “Damien, I may have been young and broke, but I wasn’t born yesterday. Everything about that situation screamed ‘stolen goods’ or ‘scam’ or both.”


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