Chapter <b>143 </b>


    Chase’s POV


    Chase didn’t believe that for a second. Alice’s ne was gaudy, if anything, but magical? And being used by Amber to keep Julian in her life?


    If that was true, why would Amber flee the pack to begin with? Why move out to this boring middle–of- nowhere town and live a quiet life? Why not go after Julian and his fortune while she was still within his


    pack?


    Olivia was beyond the point of seeing reason. Her jealousy and the many years of waiting for Julian to


    be her had clouded her reason and made her vicious. As long as Chase had known her, she’d always


    been vindictive, always plotting and conniving, but never so impatiently, or so recklessly.


    To go after the child in this situation was low, even for her.


    What would she do when her n to steal the ne resulted in nothing? Would she then decide Alice needed to be out of the way permanently<b>? </b>


    Chase knew he was a vile, greedy asshole for agreeing to go along with Olivia’s ns for this long. But


    even a lowlife as he considered himself to be had some lines. Hurting children was one of them, and he


    wouldn’t cross it.


    “What power could a ne possibly have?” he asked her. “How could Amber be using a ne of all things to twist Julian into wanting to be with her?”


    “I’m certain that the ne is helping Alice generate a scent that Julian detects as belonging to his pup,” Olivia said.


    Chase didn’t know such a thing existed. That Olivia hade to that conclusion so readily made him


    wonder if that was something she herself looked into once upon a time.


    He decided not to pry further into that line of thinking, honestly not wanting the answer.


    With Olivia though, he already knew it was likely she had. Perhaps that was why she was so quick to assume the worst of Amber. She was merely projecting onto Amber the things that she herself would do in the same situation.


    “If we remove the ne, then the false scent should dissipate, and Julian will see once and for all that the child isn’t his,” Olivia said.


    “But what if Alice is <b>his</b>,” Chase said again.


    She continued to refuse to ept that as a possibility. “It’s just not possible,” Olivia <b>said </b>“Any unborn baby would have died in that ne crash, whether Alice manifested her wolf or no. Most likely she became Roman’s lover shortly after he saved her, to help secure a ce for herself in his pack.”


    Chase tried to imagine Amber doing such a thing. He didn’t know her terribly well but what he did know told of a proud woman who was protective of herself and her child. Chase truly couldn’t imagine her bing anyone’s lover either on a whim or for a selfish purpose.


    She wouldn’t even sleep with him for fun.


    “But –“I started to say.


    Olivia clucked her tongue, silencing me. “I won’t hear anything more about this. If the ne isn’t disguising that brat’s scent, then it has no real purpose, does it? So removing it should not be a big deal for you, Chase. It shouldn’t cross any of your precious moral lines.”


    Chase wasn’t so sure.


    If that ne was magical – which Chase could admit was a possibility, as both Amber and Alice were so protective of it – then who was to say what its actual purpose was?


    Would removing it really be so easy and innocent? Would it truly not harm Alice to do so?


    As if she could see the conflict on his face, Olivia spoke up, “You have no choices here, Chase. You will do


    as I say. Unless, of course, you’d like all of high society to know you are broke. And then there’s those


    medical bills…”


    +15