Chapter 96
Chapter 96:
My fingers drifted to my wrist, tracing the cool, diamond-encrusted face of the Patek Philippe watch Kain had given me. A gilded leash. I desperately wanted the warmth of the Great Hall to be real, but the cold metal pressing against my pulse was a brutal reminder. We were just a business transaction, and I was a fool for almost forgetting it.
Adelina POV
Two days had passed since the dinner at the Blackstone Estate, but the cold weight of the diamond watch on my wrist still felt like a shackle. I was sitting in my office, staring blindly at a lukewarm cup of lemon tea, trying to bury the memory of Almon Blackwell evaluating me like prize livestock.
Then, the phone rang.
𝖨𝗻t𝘦𝗻𝘀𝘦 𝗋𝘰𝗆𝖺ոсe 𝘰ո
“Ms. Wolfe,” the frantic voice of a nurse from the Moonstone Care Facility echoed through the receiver. “You need to come to Room 302 immediately. Your mother is here, and she’s causing a severe disturbance p>
My blood ran cold.
I didn’t remember the drive. I only remembered sprinting down the pristine hallways of the facility, the sterile scent of bleach and calming herbs entirely suffocated by a rancid, sour stench. It was Carolyn. Her scent was practically rotting with the terror and spite of a woman whose Inner Wolf was howling at the looming threat of becoming a Rogue. Kain’s retaliation had been swift — Brent was in a cell, Bryan’s assets were frozen, and I had blocked her completely.
Now, she had come for my only weakness.
I shoved open the door to Room 302. “Get away from her p>
Carolyn spun around, her eyes wild and sunken. She was standing over Elder Maeve’s wheelchair, aggressively waving a sleek tablet in my grandmother’s face. Maeve looked terrifyingly frail, her silver hair trembling as tears streamed down her wrinkled cheeks.
“Tell her the truth, Adelina!” Carolyn shrieked, her voice cracking with hysteria. She shoved the screen toward me.
The bold, glaring headline from The Howl, a notorious werewolf gossip blog, made the breath punch out of my lungs: The Lycan King’s True Mate? Unveiling Kain Blackwell’s 20-Year ‘Brotherhood’ with his Beta. Below it was a grainy photo of Kain and Fletcher Banks looking intensely close.
“Call off your monster of a husband and unfreeze our accounts, or I’ll make sure the whole Pack knows what a sham this is!” Carolyn spat, turning her venom back to my weeping grandmother. “He doesn’t want her, Mother! He’s been bedding his Beta for decades. Adelina is nothing but a high-tier breeder to him — a womb to pass on the White Wolf bloodline! She sold herself to a man who will never Mark her, all to pay for this pathetic room p>
“Stop it!” I roared, my hands shaking violently.
But the damage was done. Maeve let out a choked, agonizing sob. She didn’t look at Kain with hatred — she looked at me with a profound, shattering grief.
“Lina…” she whispered, her frail hand reaching out to grip my wrist with surprising, desperate strength. “Is it true? Did you sacrifice your soul for me p>
I froze. The walls of the small room felt like they were violently closing in. If I told her the truth about the Mating Contract, the shock of my commodified existence would destroy her. But my silence was a damning confession to Carolyn’s twisted lies.