Chapter 147
# Cassian's POV
"I'll bring her back in ten," Ronan promised, meeting my eyes. "You have my word."
Elowen looked at me one more time. Those amber eyes held so much trust. So much love.
It nearly broke me.
"Go," I forced out. "We'll be here."
She nodded. Ronan guided her toward the door. His arm stayed around her shoulders—protective, gentle in a way that made my wolf snarl with jealousy even though I knew it was necessary.
Every instinct screamed at me to stop her. To keep her here where I could see her. Protect her. But she needed this moment away from the violence about to unfold.
The door closed behind them with a soft click that sounded like a gunshot in the tense silence.
Then Casper's voice exploded in my head. Something's wrong with those bastards. They're never this gentle with women.
I turned slowly to face Kade and Alaric, my ice blue eyes locking on Kade's amber ones. The air in the room had shifted—no longer the chaotic violence of before, but something calculated. Purposeful.
"Why are you being so nice to Elowen?" My voice came out sharp as broken glass, each word carefully controlled despite the chaos raging inside me.
Alaric's laugh was low and dangerous. "She's special." He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world, like we were idiots for not understanding.
"That's not an answer." I took a step forward, Zero pushing at my consciousness, demanding I rip the truth from them.
"She's ours!" Casper's shout made everyone in the room jump. He grabbed Drake's shoulder, digging his fingers in until Drake cried out in pain. "Elowen is ours! Our mate! You don't get to—"
Kade pushed off the desk with predatory grace. His grin widened, showing too many teeth. "Mated males. So touchy about their females." He walked closer, hands casually in his pockets like this was just a friendly chat. "You two ready to start the real party?"
The shift in his tone made my spine stiffen. This was what they'd been waiting for—Elowen gone, unable to witness whatever came next.
Jessica spat at Alaric, her blood-tinged saliva landing on his cheek. "Fuck you!"
The room went deathly still.
Alaric slowly wiped the spit from his face, his smile transforming into something cruel and anticipatory. "You shouldn't have done that, Jessica." He grabbed her hair, yanking her head back so hard I heard vertebrae crack. "You know better than to piss off the crazy one."
Casper moved beside me, our shoulders nearly touching. Leo and Zero were on edge, two predators watching for the moment to strike. But something held us back—the knowledge that these Alphas had information we desperately needed.
"Tell your daughter's mates what you told us," Alaric commanded, his voice dropping to a deadly whisper.
The way he said "daughter"—mocking, disgusted, like the word itself was a joke—made my skin crawl. My wolf snarled internally, sensing the trap before my conscious mind could process it.
Jessica's face twisted through a dozen emotions in seconds. Fear. Anger. Something else I couldn't name—shame? Regret?
"Lost your tongue?" Kade taunted, circling around to stand beside Alaric. "That's new. Usually can't shut you up."
Alaric slammed Jessica's head forward. Her blood vessels stood out stark against her pale skin, purple and throbbing. She gasped, choking on air, her bound hands jerking uselessly.
"Say it," Alaric hissed into her ear. "Tell them the truth you've been hiding for twenty years."
Jessica's whole body began to tremble violently. Tears streamed down her face, cutting tracks through the blood and bruises. Drake made a sound beside us—halfway between a whimper and a growl.
Then she screamed. Raw. Broken. The sound of a soul being ripped apart.
"She's not my fucking daughter!"
The words hit me like a physical blow. My blood turned to ice in my veins. Time seemed to slow, each heartbeat thundering in my ears like a death knell.
I looked at Casper. His face had gone white as snow, his deep gold eyes wide with shock and denial. His mouth opened but no sound came out.
"What?" The word barely made it past my lips, a broken whisper of disbelief.
Jessica sobbed, her shoulders shaking with the force of her anguish. But her expression—those amber eyes so similar to Elowen's—they were dead serious. No hint of deception or manipulation.
She meant it.
Elowen wasn't her daughter.
Everything stopped. My heart. My breath. The world itself seemed to pause, waiting for reality to reassemble into something that made sense.
What the fuck? Casper's thought crashed into mine like a tidal wave of panic and confusion.
I don't know, I sent back, my mental voice as shaken as I'd ever heard it. But we need to find out. Now.
Before one of us could kill someone.
Before Elowen came back and heard this.
Before everything we thought we knew shattered completely.
Kade's laughter filled the room—triumphant, vicious, satisfied.
"Now," he purred, "the real fun begins."