Chapter 89
Chapter 89:
I looked up, the fight draining out of me under the sheer weight of his storm-gray eyes. The mental chains my mother had wrapped around my throat for twenty years felt temporarily severed, leaving me adrift.
“Where are we going?” I whispered as he gently guided me back toward the elevator.
“I am arming my Luna,” was his only reply.
The underground garage smelled of gasoline and expensive leather as we slid into his vintage silver Aston Martin DB5. The chaotic roar of Fifth Avenue traffic faded soon after as we stepped into the hushed, velvet-lined sanctuary of the Patek Philippe boutique. The air inside smelled of polished metal and quiet, insurmountable wealth.
Kain bypassed the glass displays entirely. He spoke quietly to the manager, who immediately produced a velvet tray. Resting on the dark fabric was a breathtaking, diamond-encrusted women’s watch — a flawless, delicate mirror of the heavy platinum timepiece already resting on Kain’s left wrist.
“Kain, no,” I breathed, panic tightening my chest as I stepped back.
𝘋𝗈𝘄𝘯𝗹𝗈𝘢𝘥𝘢𝗯𝗹𝘦 𝗣D𝗙𝘴 о𝗇
Jase’s venomous curse hissed in my memory like a snake: He’s just Marking you with a bigger price tag, Omega.
“This is too much,” I argued, wrapping my arms around myself. “I don’t need more expensive props for the contract p>
Kain’s jaw clenched. The atmospheric pressure in the boutique plummeted, his Inner Wolf agitated by my resistance. He closed the distance between us, his massive frame completely shielding me from the manager’s view.
“This isn’t a gift, Adelina,” Kain stated, his tone slicing through my insecurities with glacial finality. “It’s armor. It’s for them to see p>
He didn’t wait for my permission. He took my left hand, his large, calloused fingers dwarfing my wrist. As the cool platinum settled against my skin, his grounding cedar scent suddenly spiked into a violent, territorial storm. It wasn’t just a clasp closing — it felt like a proxy Mark, a desperate, physical claim from a predator who couldn’t yet sink his teeth into my flesh.
I gasped, looking up at his face. For a fraction of a second, the impenetrable mask of the Alpha King slipped. I saw the raw, unadulterated focus of a Lycan claiming his Fated Mate. His eyes were pitch-black, burning with a dangerous, possessive hunger that made my dormant wild rose scent flare in response.
It was terrifyingly real.
I swallowed hard, the heavy metal resting against my pulse point. It was a flawless shield against my mother, Jase, and the entire hostile Pack world. But as his thumb brushed over the diamonds, it also felt undeniably like a gilded leash.
We stepped back out onto the freezing pavement of Fifth Avenue. Almost instantly, the blinding flash of cameras erupted from across the street. The Howl paparazzi had found us.
Kain didn’t flinch. He simply laced his fingers through mine, lifting our joined hands just enough for the lenses to catch the matching platinum on our wrists. But as I looked up at his sharp, ruthless profile, the memory of that raw, possessive hunger in his eyes left my heart hammering with a dangerous, unspoken question.