Chapter 412
Chapter 412:
I stared blindly at my ceramic coffee mug.
“Grant,” I whispered, forcing the words past the tight knot in my throat. “I need to take a few days off. I need some space to process my family tragedy p>
I needed to be alone. I needed to mourn the ghost of a son I had never known.
Across the table, Grant’s jaw tightened imperceptibly. His Lycan Inner Wolf would never allow me to slip from his sight — especially not while I was this fragile.
𝘑оi𝗻 𝘁𝗁o𝘶𝘴аn𝖽ѕ o𝖿 f𝗮n𝘴 𝗼𝗇 𝘨a𝗹ո𝗈𝘃e𝘭𝘴.с𝗈m
“I understand, Carmella,” Grant said smoothly, his deep voice a mask of sympathetic regret. “But I find myself in an impossible position. I have an emergency Senate hearing this week, and it conflicts with Jaxon’s Annual Family Day and Pup Showcase at the Pack school. I can’t be there p>
He paused, letting the weight of his fabricated dilemma settle over the room before delivering the hook. “He needs a professional guide for his project. Could you accompany him p>
Before I could even process the request, Jaxon looked up from his pancakes. His dark eyes — a perfect, devastating mirror of his father’s — were wide and pleading.
“Please, Auntie Carmella?” Jaxon’s small voice trembled with genuine vulnerability. “All the other pups will have their mothers there p>
The words pups and mothers sliced through my chest like a jagged silver blade.
The gaping, bleeding crater in my soul screamed. A violent, overwhelming need to compensate for the child I had lost completely hijacked my mind. My logic, my desperate need for isolation, disintegrated to ash beneath the weight of that innocent, motherless plea.
“Okay,” I breathed, my hands shaking as I reached across the table to gently squeeze Jaxon’s shoulder. “I’ll go with you, Jaxon p>
Across the table, Grant lifted his ceramic coffee mug and took a slow, deliberate sip. The rim concealed the dark, victorious smirk curving his lips. The trap had snapped shut, and I had walked willingly right into the center of it.
Adelina Wolfe POV
The morning sun spilled across the master suite of the Blackstone Estate, illuminating the ruined, expensive silk sheets. I woke anchored to Kain’s chest, the intoxicating blend of his ancient cedar and my wild roses and storm heavy in the air. The dull ache in my neck where his teeth had claimed me the night before was a beautiful, permanent reminder — I was his.
Before I could fully lose myself in the warmth of his embrace, my private cell phone buzzed on the nightstand.
I reached for it, wincing slightly. It was Grandmother.
“Adelina,” Elder Maeve Wolfe’s voice crackled through the speaker, sharp and leaving no room for argument. “The Whispering Glade between the Silvermoon and Blackstone borders is a vulnerability — a perfect hiding spot for Rogues. If the Lycan King is truly committed to this union, he must secure it. Our territories must become one p>