Chapter 128
Chapter 128:
“Perfect,” I purred, my eyes gleaming with malice. “Stop crying, Sloane. We are going to pay my dear stepsister’s office a little visit p>
Adelina POV
The private elevator chimed, opening into the sprawling, darkened expanse of the Blackstone penthouse den.
I stepped out, my heels clicking softly against the hardwood. I was still buzzing with the adrenaline of my victory over Vincent. I had secured the Pack. I had won. For the first time, I actually wanted to share a triumph with someone — I wanted to see the proud, dangerous gleam in Kain’s storm-gray eyes.
But the penthouse was completely empty.
I walked into the kitchen. On the massive black marble island, illuminated by a single pendant light, sat a note on heavy cream cardstock.
Pack business kept me downtown. Don’t wait up. — K.
𝖸𝗈𝘂𝗋 𝗱ai𝗅𝘺 𝖽o𝗌e 𝗈f 𝗇ov𝗲𝗅𝘴 оn ѕ.с𝗼𝗺
A sharp, pathetic pang of disappointment pierced my chest, instantly deflating my victorious high. I set the note down, my fingers trembling slightly.
Mrs. Higgins had left a plate of roasted chicken and vegetables in the warming drawer. I took it out and sat alone at the massive island. The food was perfectly cooked, but it tasted like ash in my mouth. The silence in the den was deafening, broken only by the sound of my own breathing.
The air was suffocatingly thick with Kain’s ancient cedar scent — wrapping around me like a constant, mocking reminder of the man who owned the space but wasn’t here to share it.
I looked out the floor-to-ceiling windows at the glittering, indifferent lights of the Manhattan skyline, then pulled my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around myself as the cold reality of my situation settled deep into my bones.
He is not my Mate. This is a contract.
Adelina POV
The crushing loneliness of the empty penthouse still clung to my bones the next morning. I had fled to The Wolfe Hotel Group headquarters before the sun even fully crested the skyline, desperate to bury my conflicting emotions under a mountain of spreadsheets. I needed to remember that Kain and I were just business partners.
But the Lycan King clearly had a different agenda.
When I stepped out of the private elevator and onto the mezzanine overlooking the grand lobby, I froze. The usual morning chaos of wealthy humans and Pack members had ground to an absolute halt. Everyone was staring at the main entrance.
A massive delivery truck was parked outside, and a team of workers was hauling what looked like an entire glowing forest into my lobby.
The scent hit me a second later — an ethereal, breathtakingly pure aroma that instantly overpowered the hotel’s signature lilies. Moonpetal Lilies. They were legendary in our world, a rare, luminescent flower said to bloom only under the direct blessing of the Moon Goddess. And there were hundreds of them — an absurd, astronomical fortune in floral form.
Down below, Harvey Hester was sweating through his suit, frantically directing the workers as they transformed the lobby into a glowing, sacred garden.
I hurried down the marble staircase. “Harvey, what is this p>