Chapter 31 NEW TASK
XAVIER'S POV
The heavy oak door clicked shut behind me, severing the connection between my heat and her cold defiance. I stood in the hallway for a moment, my wet clothes clinging to my skin like a leaden shroud. The water from the shower was already turning frigid against my flesh, but it was nothing compared to the permafrost settling in my chest.
Twenty-four hours.
I had given her a window to prove me a monster, or worse, to prove herself a fool. I strode down the corridor, my boots leaving damp, rhythmic imprints on the expensive rugs. Every step felt like a percussion of my own failures. I didn't head for my study; I headed for the small consultation office near the west wing. It was a room designed for strategy and cold hard facts—places where sentiment went to die.
I pulled out a leather chair, the screech of its legs against the floor echoing my internal grating. I sat, throwing my head back against the headrest, and closed my eyes.
Adrian.
The name was a splinter under my fingernail. I opened the mindlink, my mental voice booming with the authority I didn't quite feel in my soul.
"Kaiden, get to the consultation office"
"Yes, Alpha," came the instantaneous reply, clipped and professional.
I sat in the dim light, watching the dust motes dance in the sliver of moonbeams cutting through the curtains. I tried to breathe, to find that centered place of power that had made me the most feared man in the North, but all I could taste was the metallic tang of Avrielle’s blood and the scent of her rain-washed skin.
She thought I was a psycho too. Maybe she was right. Maybe you have to be a monster to lead monsters.
A sharp knock broke the silence.
"Come in," I rasped.
The door creaked open, and Kaiden stepped inside. He looked weary, the stress of the dungeon interrogation still etched in the lines around his eyes. He stopped a few feet from the desk, his posture straight, his loyalty absolute.
"You called me, Alpha?"
I didn't answer immediately. I studied him—the man who had bled beside me in a dozen border wars. I leaned forward, my hands interlacing on the desk. The question had been clawing at my throat since I left the shower, a pathetic, human doubt that had no business living in the chest of a Devil Alpha.
"Kaiden," I started, my voice lower than usual. "Am I cruel?"
The silence that followed was deafening.
Kaiden’s expression didn't just falter; it shattered for a split second. He blinked, his mouth parting slightly as if he’d just watched the sun rise in the west. I saw the flash of confusion in his eyes—the genuine fear that perhaps I had finally snapped under the pressure of the betrayal. To him, I was the immovable mountain. To ask if I was cruel was like asking if fire was hot. It was a fundamental truth of my existence.
"Huh?" he managed, the syllable small and bewildered.
I let out a dry, mirthless sound that wasn't quite a laugh. "Answer the question. Do you think I’m being unreasonable? Do you think I shouldn't apprehend Adrian simply because he’s my nephew?"
Kaiden shifted his weight, regaining his composure, though his scent still spiked with a hint of anxiety. He knew my temper. He knew that even as his best friend, my rage was a blind, hungry thing that didn't distinguish between rank and bond when provoked.
"Definitely no, Alpha," Kaiden said, his voice firming up. "Betrayal is betrayal. If we let the bloodline excuse treason, the North falls by morning. You aren't being cruel; you’re being a leader. The pack expects justice, not nepotism."
I pushed my chair back, the rollers groaning. I knew what he would say. I knew he wouldn't tell me I was ruthless to my face, even if he thought it. But the validation felt hollow. It didn't wash away the look in Avrielle’s eyes when she called me a psycho. It didn't stop the phantom ache of her hand being pulled away from me.
"Sit," I commanded.
He sat, his eyes never leaving mine. I stared at the map of our territories on the wall, my mind racing through the logistics of the conspiracy. Something felt off. It was a jagged puzzle piece that refused to fit, no matter how much force I applied.
"Do you think Adrian is capable of this alone?" I asked, my voice cutting through the tension. "Does he have the spine to orchestrate a coup of this magnitude, or is he colluding? Is someone else pulling the strings, threatening him, using him as a puppet?"
I wanted there to be an excuse. A small, dark part of me—the part that remembered teaching a young Adrian how to shift for the first time—wanted to find a reason to spare him. If he was a victim of coercion, I could salvage something.
Kaiden leaned in, his face hardening. "Knowing Adrian... he isn't the type to be persuaded. He’s arrogant. He’s always felt overshadowed by your shadow."
"I believe he didn't do this because he was forced, he did it because he thought he was smarter than you. He did it on his own accord."
A soft, dark chuckle escaped me. It was the answer I expected, and the one I dreaded.
"I knew that," I whispered, more to myself than to him. "I just wanted to see if my own bias was finally failing me."
I stood up, walking to the window. The North was silent, a vast expanse of snow. The tension in the room was a living thing, vibrating between us.
Twenty-four hours. That’s all she had. And in that time, I would ensure that when the hammer fell, it fell with the weight of a god.
I turned back to Kaiden, my eyes flashing with a predatory light. The doubt was gone, replaced by the icy resolve that had built this empire.
"New task," I barked. "I want a full, deep-dive investigation into the back-channel business between Adrian and the Malphas pack. Every cent, every letter, every whispered deal. I want to know exactly what they promised him in exchange for my head."