Chapter 186
Chapter 186:
I slammed my foot on the brakes, the tires screaming against the asphalt. I whipped the McLaren around in a violent, illegal U-turn, my heart hammering a frantic, desperate rhythm against my ribs as I drove straight back into the nightmare.
Jase POV
The sterile white walls of the Davenport Pack’s private hospital wing felt like a tomb. The rhythmic, monotonous beeping of the heart monitor was the only sound cutting through the suffocating, metallic ozone of my own guilt.
I sat beside the bed, staring at Kira. Her arm was encased in a heavy plaster cast, her face pale and bruised from the wreckage of the white convertible. When I had pulled her from that smoking metal carcass, a blinding, agonizing terror had gripped my Inner Wolf. Not again. I couldn’t fail another woman. I couldn’t be the reason another life was shattered.
“Jase?” Kira whimpered, her voice trembling. Tears spilled over her cheeks, her cloying jasmine scent souring with what smelled like genuine despair. “Please… don’t leave me. My father threw me away. The whole world hates me. If you leave me too, I have nothing p>
The desperate plea twisted the knife in my gut. This was my fault. I had pushed her to this self-destructive edge with my coldness.
“I’m not going anywhere, Kira,” I rasped, grabbing her uninjured hand. My Alpha instincts, desperate to fix what I had broken, took complete control. “We’re getting married. By the end of this month. I promise you p>
о𝗋𝗀аn𝗂𝘻𝗲 у𝗈𝘶𝘳 𝗹𝗶𝗯𝗿𝘢ry о𝘯 𝗴𝗮𝘭ո𝗼𝗏e𝗹s.с𝗈m
Kira let out a broken sob and buried her face into the white hospital pillow. As I stroked her hair, consumed entirely by my own need for redemption, I couldn’t see the reflection in the dark window glass. I couldn’t see the slow, predatory smirk of absolute victory that flashed across her lips.
Adelina POV
The heavy mahogany desk in my Alpha office felt like an isolated island. The air was thick with my own exhausted scent — wild roses laced with the sharp, defensive edge of an impending storm.
My phone buzzed, shattering the morning silence. A push notification from The Howl.
Davenport Alpha Proposes to Fallen Socialite Kira Parrish After Tragic Crash!
Below the headline was a photo of Jase carrying Kira away from a smoking car. I stared at the screen, waiting for the familiar sting of betrayal or the hot rush of anger. But there was nothing — only a vast, freezing kingdom of ice in my chest. I attributed the numbness to my wolfless nature; perhaps I simply lacked the capacity for the violent, consuming jealousy of a true wolf.
I picked up my phone and dialed Kain’s private number. The cold war between us had raged for days, but this was Pack business. A major alliance shift.
He answered on the second ring. “Speak p>
His voice was a glacial void, completely devoid of the ancient cedar warmth I secretly craved.
“Jase Davenport just announced his engagement to Kira Parrish,” I stated, keeping my tone strictly professional. “They are marrying by the end of the month. This will likely solidify the Davenport Pack’s hostile stance against our hotel group p>