Chapter 218
Chapter 218:
Kira had completely lost her mind.
My Inner Wolf whimpered, clawing at my ribs in absolute terror of the Lycan King’s impending wrath. I had seen Kain Blackwell in that dining room. I had seen the way he looked at Adelina—not as a captive toy, but as a feral beast gazing upon its only sacred treasure. He didn’t abuse her; he worshipped her.
And yet I was the fool who had publicly bound himself to the rotting corpse of the Parrish family. I was trapped by my own pathetic need for control, chained to a woman who had just declared war on a god. I couldn’t publicly denounce her without destroying my own Pack’s remaining credibility.
I picked up the remote with a heavy, trembling hand and turned on the wall-mounted television. The news networks were already broadcasting live from the Grand Atrium of Blackstone Tower, waiting for Kain to take the podium.
I sat in the silence of my office, watching the empty podium on the screen, completely paralyzed by the weight of my own catastrophic mistakes.
Adelina POV
I sat up in the Sanctum’s recovery bed, my fingers gripping the edges of the tablet so tightly my knuckles turned white. On the screen, the Grand Atrium of Blackstone Tower was a chaotic sea of flashing cameras and murmuring reporters.
Then the room went dead silent.
Kain stepped up to the obsidian podium. Even through the digital feed, his presence was a suffocating wave of ancient cedar and absolute, terrifying power. He didn’t look like a billionaire CEO defending a scandal; he looked like a king who had just locked the doors to the slaughterhouse.
𝖱e𝖺𝗱 o𝘯 а𝘯𝘺 𝗱e𝘷iс𝖾 o𝗇 ѕ.с𝘰𝗺
He didn’t offer a single word of defense. Instead, he gestured to the massive screen behind him.
Fletcher Banks stepped out of the shadows and hit a button. High-definition footage filled the atrium. It was Kira, sitting in a dingy Brooklyn bar, handing over a flash drive to the editor of The Howl. Her malicious, cloying voice echoed across the continent, explicitly detailing her fabricated lies and her intent to destroy my reputation.
The reporters gasped, the sound rippling through the broadcast.
Kain gripped the edges of the podium. His storm-gray eyes stared directly into the camera, piercing straight through the lens and into my soul.
“I do not answer to rumors,” Kain’s voice rumbled, laced with the undeniable, bone-crushing weight of an Alpha’s Command. “Regarding my Fated Mate, I only care about one person’s opinion. Her heartbeat is my law. Any attack on her is a declaration of war on my crown p>
He paused, letting the lethal promise settle over the terrified press corps.
“Effective immediately, I have petitioned the Continental Pack Council,” Kain announced, his tone absolute ice. “For the crimes of treason and desecrating a sacred bond, the Parrish family will be stripped of their Pack status and marked as Rogues p>