Chapter 25 The Architect of Ruin
XAVIER'S POV
I sat on the edge of the bed, my arm cradling Avrielle against my bare chest. She felt warmer now, the deathly chill of the silver poisoning finally receding.
It had been five long, grueling hours since I had poured my essence into her, bridging the gap between our souls to give her wolf the strength to fight. Her temperature had stabilized, the frantic beeping of the heart monitor settling into a steady, rhythmic cadence, but her eyes remained stubbornly shut.
I stared at her pale, delicate features, my thumb tracing the line of her jaw. Every minute she remained in this state felt like a shard of glass pressing down on my lungs.
If Aris was wrong—if his 'ancient laws' were nothing more than the desperate ramblings of a man trying to save his own skin—I wouldn't just kill him. I would feed his tongue to the pack dogs while he watched.
"Alpha."
The voice sliced through my mental haze, sharp and intrusive. I would recognize that tone anywhere; it was Kaiden.
I stiffened, my gaze lingering on Avrielle for a heartbeat longer before I carefully shifted her weight back onto the pillows. I stood up, my joints popping after hours of stillness, and reached for my shirt.
"I’m listening," I replied through the mindlink, my mental voice like a serrated blade.
The three days I had given him were officially over. I knew Kaiden wouldn't dare contact me unless he had something concrete. He knew the stakes. He knew that I was one bad news away from burning the world to a cinder.
"I have news about who ordered the assault, Alpha," Kaiden responded, his tone uncharacteristically heavy. "You... you should brace yourself for this."
My fist balled at my side, my knuckles turning white as the leather of my gloves creaked. The suspicion that had been simmering in the back of my mind for days began to boil. I had felt it in my gut, a dark, nagging intuition that I had tried to suppress because of the sheer depravity of it.
"Do not add to my anger by beating around the bush, Kaiden!" I growled back. "Give me a damn name already!"
The silence on the other end lasted only a second, but it felt like an eternity.
"The tracers I found led back to Adrian," Kaiden blurted out, the words coming fast as if he wanted to be rid of them. "His financial records show he has been funneling untraceable credits to an anonymous mercenary group for weeks. He’s been contacting an underground broker lately, someone specialized in vampire-wolf coordination."
My heart didn't just burn; it turned to ash.
I had suspected him, yes, but seeing the confirmation was a different kind of agony.
I had known Adrian was rebellious, a spoiled, entitled whelp who couldn't handle the loss of his property, but I hadn't truly believed he had the spine to orchestrate a hit on his own Alpha. Especially not one that involved the very creatures we were sworn to hunt.
Now it all made sense. Avrielle was the target all along.
They didn't want to kill me; they knew they couldn't. They just needed to distract me long enough to gut the woman I loved. They wanted to punish me by taking her, and they had nearly succeeded.
"Where are you?" I snapped, the darkness in my soul expanding until it felt like it would swallow the room.
"I am headed for the manor now to brief you in person, Alpha," Kaiden replied.
"Change of plans," I sent back, my voice cold enough to freeze blood. "Meet me at Adrian’s house instead."
"Yes, Alpha."
I severed the link and turned back to the bed. Avrielle looked like a porcelain doll, her breathing soft and shallow.
I leaned down and pressed a lingering peck to her forehead, my lips then trailing down to her earlobe. I bit down, not hard enough to draw blood, but enough to leave a mark.
"What would you think, I wonder?" I whispered against her skin, my voice thick with a dark, vengeful irony. "Knowing I’m about to go and probs end the life of the man you once called husband? Would you stop me, Avrielle? Do you still love that pathetic excuse for a man enough to beg for his life?"
I stared at her, half-expecting her eyes to flutter open, half-expecting her to reach out and pull me back from the edge of the cliff I was standing on. But she remained still, her silence the only answer I was going to get.
The jealousy flared in my chest, a hot, ugly thing. I hated that he had ever touched her. I hated that she had spent years trying to please a man who was now willing to see her bleed out in the dirt just to spite me. If there was even a shred of affection left in her for him, I was going to burn it out with the truth of his betrayal.
I flashed a grim, joyless smile at her sleeping form, a promise of the carnage to come. "Rest, my Luna. When you wake, the world will be a cleaner place."
I turned on my heel and walked out of the infirmary, the air in the hallway feeling electric as I passed. I didn't need to look at the guards to know they were trembling as I passed.
I mindlinked my driver as I reached the grand entrance of the manor.
"Bring the car around. We’re going to the West Wing. I have a debt to collect."
"Yes, Alpha" His voice rang through.