Chapter 363
Chapter 363:
Adelina looked down at the photograph of a young Grant, her eyes tracing the C.G. written in faded ink and the red string bracelet encircling the wrist pressed against his chest.
“He knew me,” I whispered, hot tears spilling down my cheeks. “Seven years ago, before my crash, we were Mates. But he’s playing a sick, twisted game with me now. He must have abandoned me before the Marking, had Jaxon with another woman, and now he’s using my amnesia to trap me in this cage p>
Adelina didn’t look shocked by the photo. Instead, her expression softened into a look of profound, devastating pity that made my stomach drop.
She reached across the table and gently covered my trembling hands with hers.
ѕ𝗍o𝘳𝗶е𝘴 yo𝘂 𝘸on’𝗍 𝗉𝗎𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝘯 оn.с𝘰𝘮
“Carmella, stop,” she said softly. “Grant has never had a Luna. He never completed a Marking ceremony with anyone p>
I froze, the breath catching in my throat. “But Jaxon p>
“Seven years ago, after the silver ambush that everyone believed had killed his Fated Mate, he returned to the estate with a newborn pup — Jaxon,” Adelina revealed, her voice heavy with the sorrow of the Blackstone family’s darkest tragedy. “He told everyone his Mate was dead. He even refused the Moon Goddess’s offer of a Second Chance Mate p>
The conservatory spun violently around me.
A wave of pure, paralyzing horror crashed through my body. My trembling fingers spasmed, and my hand knocked against the edge of the table, sending my porcelain teacup crashing to the marble floor.
The sharp sound of shattering china echoed like a gunshot in the humid air. I gasped and instinctively reached down to collect the pieces. A jagged shard sliced deep into my index finger. Bright red blood welled up instantly, dripping onto the pristine white fragments of porcelain.
“Carmella!” Adelina dropped to her knees beside me, grabbing a linen napkin and pressing it firmly against my bleeding finger.
“I have to go,” I gasped, my chest heaving as I stared at my own blood. The beautiful conservatory suddenly felt like a glass coffin. “My medical files in Manhattan. The adoption records. I need to see them. I need to know what he did to me p>
Adelina looked into my terrified eyes. She didn’t argue. She didn’t try to calm me down with Pack politics. She saw a mother realizing her child had been taken from her by a monster.
“I’ll get you out,” Adelina said fiercely, her voice dropping to a determined whisper. “Kain and Grant are locked in a meeting with Almon. I’ll have my personal driver take you straight to the city right now. They won’t even know you’re gone until you’re across the bridge p>
I nodded numbly, clutching the bloodied napkin to my chest. Supported by Adelina’s arm, I stumbled out of the humid, suffocating conservatory — fleeing the Lycan’s gilded cage to unearth the buried corpse of my own past.
Jase POV
The Continental Pack Council’s detention center was a bleak concrete tomb. The air reeked of industrial bleach and the bitter tang of wolf-suppressing herbs, suffocating my already hollowed-out Inner Wolf.