Chapter 258
Chapter 258:
I reached out, my fingertips brushing the cold stone.
The moment my skin made contact, the fragile mate-bond in my chest flared with a violent, electric heat. Kain’s deep, vibrating voice echoed directly into my mind, carrying the intoxicating scent of ancient cedar.
Your trust, little wolf. And perhaps, my soul.
I pulled my hand back, my breath catching in my throat. He was laying everything on the table. I looked up at Carmella, my resolve hardening into absolute steel.
“I don’t have an Inner Wolf,” I said, my voice steady. “I can’t sense their auras the way you do. I need you to teach me how to read a room full of Alphas. Teach me how to smell a lie, how to detect ambition, and how to recognize fear hidden beneath their cologne p>
Carmella offered a sharp, supportive nod. “I’ll teach you everything I know p>
𝖸оu𝘳 𝗻𝖾𝘹t 𝘧𝗮𝘷𝘰r𝗶𝗍𝖾 𝗿е𝘢d 𝗂𝗌 𝗼𝘯
Carmella POV
I was still pulling up the scent-profile documents for Adelina when a hotel messenger knocked on the open office door.
“Delivery for Ms. Golden,” the young man said, placing a small, unmarked rectangular box on my desk before hurrying away.
I frowned. I hadn’t ordered anything. I carefully lifted the lid.
Inside, resting on a bed of dark tissue paper, was a fresh bundle of rosemary sprigs, tightly bound by a thick black silk ribbon.
The moment the box opened, the scent hit me. It wasn’t merely the herbal smell of the plant — it was an exact, terrifying mirror of my own aura, rosemary and rain, completely suffocated by a heavy, aggressive wave of biting winter frost and dark pine.
My blood ran entirely cold. The box slipped from my trembling fingers and clattered onto the desk.
Adelina stood up, her brow furrowed. “Grant drove you home the other night. Could it be from him p>
I stared at the black ribbon, my chest tightening with a primal, inexplicable terror. This wasn’t a romantic gesture. It was a scent-marking — a towering, dangerous Lycan predator wrapping his aura around my identity, whispering from the shadows that I belonged to him. It felt like a ghost was dragging me into an inescapable, predestined web.
“I just ended an engagement, Adelina,” I whispered, my voice shaking as I backed away from the desk. “I’m rebounding. Getting involved with a Lycan Senator who looks at me like I’m a ghost he’s trying to resurrect — it’s a disaster waiting to happen p>
I wrapped my arms around myself, unable to shake the freezing sensation that no matter how far I ran, Grant Blackwell’s shadow was already waiting for me.
Adelina POV
I had left Carmella under the strict protection of two Blackstone Warriors, her profound terror over Grant’s scent-marked rosemary delivery still weighing heavily on my mind. But as Saturday night arrived, I had to set aside my friend’s ghosts to face a completely different kind of battlefield.