Chapter 174: Exposure

Kaelen's POV

"You dare interrupt me?" The words came out in that double-toned snarl, half-human and half-beast, my wolf pushing so close to the surface that I could feel my bones starting to shift. My eyes burned gold, locked on Lucian with an intensity that promised violence if he said one more fucking word.

The temperature in the room seemed to drop. The monitors screeched louder. Cordelia pressed herself against the wall, her face pale. Even Vespera—still gasping and coughing on the bed—went completely still, her survival instincts screaming at her to become invisible.

Lucian was shaking. Sweat poured down his face. His muscles were locked rigid, fighting against every instinct that told him to submit, to bare his throat, to grovel for forgiveness. Blood trickled from his forehead where the force of my dominance had actually split the skin.

But he didn't kneel. He stayed on his feet, trembling like a leaf in a hurricane, and somehow—somehow—he forced words past his teeth.

"You don't want to find your mate?" His voice cracked on the question, barely audible over the sound of his own ragged breathing. "We need information from her! We need to know where he's taken Sera!"

"Seraphine is still in Damien's hands!" he shouted, and I felt the raw desperation in those words like a physical blow. "She needs you to save her, not watch you destroy yourself by killing this bitch!"

The names hit me like silver bullets.

Luna. Seraphine.

My mate. My Sera. The woman who was somewhere out there, collared and terrified and waiting for me to find her while I stood here with my hands around a traitor's throat.

I saw her face in my mind—scared, her green eyes wide with terror. I heard her voice calling my name, felt the phantom sensation of her trying to reach me through a bond that no longer existed because some fucking psychopath had locked silver around her neck.

My body went rigid. The gold in my eyes flickered, and for just a second, something human pushed through the beast's fury.

If I kill Vespera now, I might never find Sera. Never know where Damien took her. Never get the chance to bring her home.

The internal war that followed felt like it was tearing me apart from the inside. My wolf howled for blood, for vengeance, for the satisfaction of ending the life of the woman who'd betrayed us. But beneath that primal rage was something else—something that hurt worse than any physical wound.

Fear. Pure, paralyzing fear that I'd lose Sera forever if I gave in to this.

I forced myself to take a breath. Then another. Each one felt like swallowing broken glass, but slowly—agonizingly slowly—the gold in my eyes began to recede. The pressure of my dominance eased by a fraction, enough that Lucian could finally draw a full breath.

I opened my fists. My fingers were wet with Vespera's blood, knuckles split and raw. I looked down at them like I was seeing someone else's hands, someone else's violence.

"Make her talk. If she can't tell me where Sera is, I'll kill her right fucking now," I said, my voice flat and dead and so much more dangerous than shouting would have been.

Lucian's body sagged slightly as the crushing weight of my dominance eased, his muscles unlocking just enough to let him breathe properly again. But there was no relief in his eyes—just sharp, calculating focus as he immediately turned to Cordelia.

"Get her conscious enough to talk," he said, his voice still rough but steady now. "Alpha wants answers, and we need them before he loses control again."

I didn't respond. I just stood there, fists clenched, while Cordelia moved forward with quick, purposeful steps.

"The blood on Orion's teeth matches her blood," Cordelia said, her voice tight with barely controlled emotion. "But I need to find the actual bite wound."

She moved to Vespera's bedside, her hands reaching for the edge of the hospital gown that had been hastily draped over her. The fabric was pushed up around her hips, and I could see the thick white bandages wrapped around her right thigh.

"Don't move," he growled.

Cordelia cut through the bandages with swift, efficient movements. The white gauze fell away in strips, and there it was.

A vicious bite wound that cut deep into the muscle. The mark was unmistakable—I could see the clear impression of Orion's jaws, each tooth having punctured through skin and into the flesh beneath with brutal precision. Dark bruising spread outward from the bite in mottled shades of purple and black, and the edges were torn and ragged.

Blood had crusted around the injury in thick layers, but fresh seepage still oozed from the deepest punctures. The whole area was swollen and inflamed, the skin stretched tight and angry.

"Found it," Cordelia breathed. She pulled out her phone, comparing the wound to the photo she'd taken of Orion's mouth. "Perfect match. This is definitely Orion's bite."

Lucian's eyes narrowed. "So you ambushed Orion, injected him with sedatives, and when he realized you were the traitor, he bit you with his last breath."

Cordelia traced the arc of the wound carefully. "And look at the angle. The bite came from below, which means Orion was on the ground when he did this. She was standing over him, and he used whatever strength he had left to mark his killer."

Lucian's head snapped toward Vespera, but there was no surprise in his expression—only cold, calculating satisfaction.

"So that's it," he said quietly, his voice eerily calm. "That seals it. No more lies."

Vespera's mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out except a broken wheeze. Her eyes darted between Lucian, Cordelia, and me, searching desperately for an escape route that didn't exist.

The gold surged back into my vision. My wolf clawed at my control, howling for blood, for justice.

She killed him. She killed Orion. And she's been playing the victim while Sera suffers.

I took a step forward, and Vespera flinched violently.

"Alpha." Lucian turned to face me. "Let me question her. You're not in the right state to be in here. One wrong word from her and you'll kill her before we get what we need."

Every muscle in my body screamed at me to refuse, to push him aside and finish what I'd started. But I looked at Lucian—at the cold determination in his eyes—and I remembered why he was my Beta.

Because when I couldn't think straight, he could. When I was drowning in rage, he could stay calculating. And right now, Sera needed him to be the one asking questions.

"Ten minutes," I growled, my voice barely human. "You have ten minutes to get me everything I need to know."