Chapter 28
Chapter 28:
I stared at the heavy key in my palm. He had destroyed my last piece of independence, only to replace it with a million-dollar fortress on wheels. He masked his actions behind cold contract logic and Pack reputation, but the sheer, overbearing weight of his protection left me entirely off balance—wondering who the man sitting across from me truly was.
Adelina POV
It was past eleven at night when I finally ventured into Kain’s study. The room felt less like an office and more like the bridge of a starship. There were no books, only cold obsidian, brushed steel, and an entire wall of dormant monitors.
I sat at the massive desk, surrounded by printed financial ledgers from The Wolfe Hotel Group. If I was going to be Kain’s political partner, I needed to prove my worth. I had to find the exact paper trail of my stepfather Bryan’s and my mother Carolyn’s treason. But the numbers were a tangled, chaotic mess. I stared at a specific expense—an industrial kitchen oven replacement that had been written off three times in four years—but I couldn’t trace where the actual funds had vanished.
A heavy atmospheric shift made the hair on my arms stand up.
I didn’t hear the door open, but the sudden, intoxicating scent of ancient cedar and leather flooded the room. Kain stepped up behind my chair. He didn’t lean in to look at the scattered papers. Instead, his large hand reached past me, his knuckles brushing my shoulder. The electric spark of his touch sent a shiver down my spine.
He tapped a sequence on the glass desk. Instantly, the entire wall of monitors flared to life.
I gasped. A three-dimensional, dynamic map of The Wolfe Hotel Group’s cash flow over the last five years materialized before us—a terrifying display of the Blackstone Empire’s absolute surveillance power.
“You’re looking too close to the surface,” Kain’s low, gravelly voice vibrated just beside my ear. His Inner Wolf radiated a dark, predatory satisfaction at hunting alongside me. He pointed to a glowing red line buried deep in the digital web. “Watch the trust funds meant for Pack pup education and Warrior pensions p>
I followed his finger. The red line bypassed the Pack’s official accounts, funneling into a shell company registered in the Bahamas—a company Kain’s data flagged as controlled by a hostile Rogue Pack. From there, the laundered money shot straight into a secret offshore account in Las Vegas.
𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘯
The account holder’s name flashed on the screen: Carolyn Parrish.
My blood ran ice cold. They hadn’t just stolen my inheritance; they were robbing the most vulnerable members of our Pack to fund my mother’s gambling addiction.
“Tomorrow, you go to the hotel and fire the Chief Financial Officer,” Kain commanded, his tone devoid of any mercy. “He is Bryan’s man. Once he is removed, my team will initiate a full forensic audit p>
I stared at the glowing red line of betrayal. I had walked into this room feeling overwhelmed, but Kain had just handed me the exact weapon I needed. For the first time, the terrifying Lycan King didn’t feel like my captor. He felt like my comrade in arms.