Chapter 353
Chapter 353:
Then, absolute silence.
A profound, breathtaking relief washed over me. The suffocating weight of my past—the ghost of the man who had broken me—was finally, permanently gone.
Kain’s large hands pulled me flush against his chest. His ancient cedar scent wrapped around me, and his mouth crashed down on mine, hungry and triumphant. I melted into his scorching heat, my hands tangling in his hair—but a shrill, jarring alarm from his encrypted satellite phone shattered the moment.
Kain tore his lips away, his jaw clenching. He answered the call, his voice dropping into a freezing, authoritative German. “Sichern Sie die Grenzen. Wenn sie den Vertrag zerreißen, töten Sie die Anführer.” (Secure the borders. If they tear the treaty, kill the leaders p>
He hung up, his golden eyes filled with a dark, torn guilt. “The Frankfurt summit,” he rasped, his chest heaving. “A rival Pack alliance is threatening to break the peace treaty. If I am not there in six hours to crush the rebellion, the continent goes to war p>
He looked at me, his Lycan Inner Wolf clearly agonizing over leaving his newly claimed Mate.
No𝘃𝗲𝗅𝘀 𝗂n 𝗍𝗿𝗲𝘯𝗱 oո
I didn’t cry. I didn’t complain. I picked up his discarded dress shirt from the armchair and pressed it firmly into his massive hands. “Go,” I said, my voice steady and unwavering. “A King belongs with his Pack p>
Kain stared at me, absolutely stunned by my resolve. He dropped the shirt, framed my face with his hands, and kissed me with a desperate, soul-shattering reverence. “Three days, my Queen. I swear it p>
When the door closed behind him, the suite felt massive and empty—but for the first time, I felt the true, heavy mantle of a Luna resting on my shoulders.
Two hours later, the biting autumn wind whipped my coat around my legs as I stood behind the old gymnasium at St. Jude’s Academy for the Predestined. I had found my old yearbook while packing my things at the hotel, and the memory of the crumbling red brick wall had drawn me here. I needed to see the “Adelina + Jase” I had carved as a naive teenager, just to mentally burn it to ash.
“Still standing, barely,” a raspy voice noted.
Old Man Hemlock, the retired human janitor, leaned on a rake nearby. He squinted at me through the crisp air. “I remember you. And I remember the boy who used to watch you from the tree line. Eyes like a wolf, that one p>
I frowned, my heart skipping a beat. “What boy p>
Hemlock chuckled dryly. “About ten years ago, I was ordered to power-wash the graffiti off this wall. That boy marched up to me. Handed me an envelope of cash thick enough to pay off my mortgage. Looked at me with eyes that made my soul shiver and said that if I touched the brick next to your name, he’d buy the academy and ruin my life p>
My hands trembled as I pulled out my phone and brought up a high school photo of Kain. “Was it him p>
Hemlock nodded. “That’s the terrifying bastard p>
I dropped to my knees in the damp grass. With shaking fingers, I tore away the thick, dead ivy vines clinging to the brick right next to my old carving. There, carved impossibly deep into the fired clay, were two letters: K.B.
The breath was punched from my lungs. Ten years. Kain hadn’t just noticed me three years ago—he had been a silent, apex predator guarding his ultimate obsession for a decade. The sheer, absolute magnitude of his devotion crashed over me, and instantly a profound, overwhelming sense of The Soul’s Peace filled the empty void in my chest.
I didn’t hesitate. I pulled out my phone and dialed my assistant.
“Marcus,” I breathed, staring at the carved initials that had waited ten years for me to find them. “Book me the next available flight to Frankfurt p>