Chapter 163
Chapter 163:
It was a delegation born of necessity. It would prove to be a fatal mistake.
Hours later, the welcome banquet in the grand ballroom was in full swing. I was mid-conversation with a Pack Elder, desperately projecting stability, when a blood-curdling shriek shattered the elegant chatter.
The music stopped abruptly. I hiked up my evening gown and sprinted toward the lobby.
Zack Rutledge was on his knees in the center of the marble floor, clutching the splintered, ruined neck of a violin and sobbing hysterically as a crowd of horrified guests and Pack members formed a tight circle around him. Camera flashes and smartphone recording lights illuminated his tear-stained face.
“My Stradivarius!” Zack wailed, his voice echoing off the high ceilings. He pointed a trembling finger directly at me as I broke through the crowd. “They destroyed it! This place… this Pack… it’s a death trap p>
The lobby erupted into panicked murmurs. The scent of shock, morbid curiosity, and Zack’s entirely fabricated grief choked the air.
I stepped forward to take control, but the flashing blue lights of a police cruiser were already painting the heavy glass entrance doors. Sheriff Xander stepped into the lobby, his hand resting on his duty belt.
My blood ran cold. Too fast. A human police response in midtown Manhattan took minutes, not seconds. He had been waiting outside.
Harvey pushed through the crowd, his face ashen, his chest heaving with panic. He leaned close to my ear, his voice trembling. “Luna… I was lured away. I received an emergency mind-link about a severe gas leak in the pup nursery. I left the keys on the desk. When I got back, the vault had been forced open. The security cameras in your corridor — they were looped with ten-minute-old footage p>
𝘈c𝗍іvе c𝗈𝘮𝘮𝘂ո𝘪𝘵𝘆 𝘰ո.с𝘰m
A fake mind-link. Looped cameras. A perfectly timed police arrival.
My phone vibrated violently in my clutch. I pulled it out. A push notification from The Howl — Kira Parrish had just posted a live update, complete with a photo of Zack crying on our lobby floor.
Horrific security breach at The Wolfe. Is a wolfless Omega really capable of protecting Pack assets? #WolfeFail #WolflessLuna
The pieces snapped violently together in my mind. Zack hadn’t been robbed. He had used a bribed maid’s keycard, swapped the real violin for a cheap replica, smashed it, and staged the break-in while Harvey was distracted.
I stood in the center of the flashing police lights and the glare of smartphone cameras, my dormant wild rose scent turning to absolute ice. This wasn’t a theft. It was a perfectly orchestrated assassination of my leadership, designed to strip me of my Pack.
Kira Parrish had declared war.
Adelina POV
The flashing blue lights of the police cruisers painted the marble lobby in a ghostly, chaotic hue. In the center of the crowd, Zack Rutledge was putting on the performance of a lifetime.