Chapter 347
Chapter 347:
Grant didn’t smile. He stepped forward, forcing me to back up until my spine hit the wall. He caged me in with his massive arms and leaned down until his lips brushed my ear.
“I lie to the public every day, Carmella,” he growled, the sound vibrating deep in his chest, laced with a feral edge. “But I never lie to the woman I want p>
I was still trembling when we climbed into the back of his armored SUV. The privacy partition hummed upward, sealing us in the dark leather cabin.
Grant’s encrypted phone buzzed. He answered it, his expression turning to ice. “Destroy him,” he ordered, his voice devoid of any mercy. “Cut his credit lines. Make sure Quentin Marks never finds a job on this continent by dawn p>
𝗗o𝘄ոlo𝖺𝘥 𝘗𝘋Fѕ 𝘧𝗿𝖾е о𝗇
He ended the call and slipped the phone back into his pocket as if he hadn’t just ruined my ex-fiancé’s life with a single breath. I sat frozen, staring at the Lycan beside me. I had invited a monster to save me from a cage, only to realize he was building a far stronger, inescapable one around me.
Adelina POV
The sunroom at the Blackstone Estate was bathed in golden Saturday afternoon light, but I was freezing. I sat opposite my grandmother, Elder Maeve Wolfe, the comforting scent of her dry herbs failing to calm the frantic hammering against my ribs.
“He lied to me, Grandma,” I whispered, my voice trembling as I stared at my tightly clasped hands. “Kain’s leg. It wasn’t a skiing accident. Lycans don’t scar like that. The tissue is completely mangled, as if it was burned from the inside out p>
Maeve’s cloudy eyes cleared, a profound, heavy sadness settling into her weathered features. She set her teacup down on the wicker table. “Almon told me everything, Adelina. It is time you knew the true weight of your King’s crown p>
I held my breath, the electric spark of my incomplete mate-bond humming with a sudden, dark dread.
“Three years ago in Europe, Kain was ambushed by a rival Pack,” Maeve began softly. “It was a meticulously planned assassination. They used a heavy transport truck lined entirely with silver plates to crush his car. He was trapped in that twisted, silver-laced steel for five agonizing hours p>
A sharp gasp tore from my throat. Silver. The ultimate, lethal poison to our kind.
“By the time they extracted him, the silver was eating its way to his heart,” Maeve continued, tears pooling in her eyes. “The Pack Doctors and the Healer were unanimous. They had to amputate the leg immediately to save his Inner Wolf p>
“Oh, Goddess,” I choked out, pressing a hand over my mouth.
“But Kain refused,” Maeve whispered. “He risked agonizing death. He told his father, ‘A crippled King cannot kneel before his Queen p>
The words struck me with the devastating force of a physical blow. Three years ago—he hadn’t even met me yet. He didn’t know my name, but his soul already knew I existed. He had endured years of hellish, bone-scraping surgeries and brutal physical therapy just so he could walk toward me whole.