Chapter 119
Chapter 119:
Adelina POV
The blinding morning sun sliced through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Master Den, dragging me out of a heavy, dreamless sleep.
I opened my eyes, my cheek pressed against the cool black silk sheets. My body ached with a deep, unfamiliar soreness, but it was the scent in the room that made the breath punch out of my lungs. The air was suffocatingly thick with the intoxicating aroma of ancient cedar, completely intertwined with the heavy, bruised scent of my own wild roses.
The memories of last night crashed over me like a tidal wave. The shattered glass. The molten gold in his eyes. The violent, consuming fire of the Tears of the Goddess that had stripped away every boundary between us.
Panic — sharp and absolute — seized my chest.
What have I done?
I had broken the Mating Contract. I had surrendered my body and my fragile heart to a Lycan King who had only been fulfilling a biological imperative forced upon him by his father’s twisted potion. In my drug-addled haze, I had let myself forget the truth: Kain’s heart belonged to Fletcher Banks. I was just a convenient, contracted asset who happened to be in the room when the aphrodisiac hijacked his Lycan instincts.
𝘛he 𝗺𝘰ѕ𝘵 𝗉𝗈р𝗎𝘭а𝘳 𝗻𝗈𝘃𝗲𝗹ѕ 𝗼𝗻 ѕ.𝗰𝗼𝗺
I needed to leave. I needed to rebuild my walls before he woke up and realized the catastrophic mistake we had made.
Holding my breath, I carefully lifted the heavy silk duvet and began sliding my bare legs toward the edge of the mattress.
Before my toes could touch the floor, a massive arm clamped around my waist.
Zap.
A violent electric spark shot across my bare skin as Kain hauled me backward, pulling me flush against his broad, scarred chest. The heat radiating from his body was a physical brand.
“Where are you going, little wolf?” Kain murmured. His morning voice was a deep, gravelly rumble that vibrated against my spine, thick with a lazy, possessive satisfaction. He buried his face in the crook of my neck, his lips brushing my pulse point.
My heart hammered a frantic, terrifying rhythm against my ribs. The sheer tenderness of his touch was agonizing. It was a lie. It had to be a lie.
I stiffened, forcing my hands to pry his heavy arm from my waist. I scrambled to the edge of the bed and pulled the black silk sheet up to cover my chest.
Kain propped himself up on one elbow. The relaxed, contented aura of his Inner Wolf faltered. His storm-gray eyes scanned my rigid posture, the warmth in his gaze slowly dimming. “Adelina p>
“It was the tea,” I blurted out, my voice trembling before I forced it into the cold, clipped register of a CEO. I couldn’t bring myself to look at the A.W. tattoo on his chest. “Almon’s herbal supplement — it was laced with something. What happened last night was a chemical reaction. A lapse in judgment p>
The atmospheric pressure in the bedroom plummeted.