Chapter 192
Chapter 192:
“Enough,” I cut her off, my tone devoid of any warmth. I stared straight ahead at the privacy partition. “This is a Blackwell matter. It does not concern you p>
Adelina recoiled as though I had struck her. The fragile bridge we had begun to build over Jaxon shattered instantly, replaced by a towering wall of ice. I hated the hurt flashing across her face, but I had to protect her. Grant’s grief was a sleeping beast, and if this was a trap orchestrated by our enemies, I would not let Adelina become collateral damage.
The Phantom pulled away from the curb, merging into the heavy city traffic.
In the heavy silence, Jaxon leaned closer to Adelina. He thought he was being quiet, but my Lycan hearing caught every syllable.
“She is my mommy,” the pup whispered.
The words drove into my chest like a silver dagger. I glanced up at the rearview mirror. Adelina was staring down at the boy, her face a canvas of shock and undeniable doubt. She was starting to believe him.
My gaze drifted to the tinted window. As we drove past the parking structure, I saw her. Carmella Golden was standing frozen beside her gray sedan — not looking at her keys or her phone, but staring directly at the departing Phantom, her arms wrapped around herself, her face etched with a profound, inexplicable loss.
𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗶𝗱𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝗴𝗲𝗺𝘀 𝗼𝗻
My jaw clenched until my teeth ached. The ghost was real, and she was going to tear my family apart all over again.
Grant POV
The rain lashed against the window of my Boston study, a cold, relentless rhythm that matched the heavy beating of my heart. I had just ended a tense call with a Senate colleague, but the real storm was inside my chest. The air in the room was thick with my grief — a suffocating blend of my own scent and the phantom memory of rosemary and rain.
The heavy oak door burst open.
Jaxon stood there, his small chest heaving. In his hands, he clutched a worn, frayed photograph. My blood ran cold. It was the picture from my locked drawer — Carmella, laughing on a park bench, her dark hair blowing in the wind.
“I smelled her, Daddy!” Jaxon cried, his Lycan pup instincts vibrating with absolute, undeniable certainty. “I saw Mommy at the mall yesterday with Auntie Adelina! She bought me hot chocolate. She smells like home p>
The words twisted like a silver dagger in my gut. Seven years ago, my Fated Mate had burned to ash in a silver-laced ambush orchestrated by a rival Pack. The agony of that loss had buried my Inner Wolf in a grave of denial. Hearing her name — hearing that she was alive — tore open the deepest wound in my soul.
“Give me that,” I snarled, my voice a cold, unrecognizable rasp as I snatched the photo from his small hands. “Stop making things up, Jaxon. Your mother is dead. She is in the arms of the Moon Goddess p>