Chapter 175 Dangerous truths
Chapter 175: Dangerous Truths
Millen's POV
We lay tangled in silk sheets, my head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat slow to normal. His fingers traced lazy patterns on my bare shoulder and for a few precious moments I let myself forget about prophecies and power and the war I was wedging against the world.
The silver threading through his dark hair caught the firelight, and I found myself studying the lines at the corners of his eyes, marks of experience that comes with partaking in lots of battles, and years lived before he became mine. Aldric was not young like the warriors in my army. He was something better, Seasoned and Dangerous. A weapon honed to perfection by time and hardship.
"Tell me about Selene," he said quietly.
I stiffened. "Why?"
"Because she is part of your plan and I need to understand all the pieces." His hand did not stop its gentle movement. "You never speak of her except in strategy meetings."
I shifted, propping myself up to look at him. His face was open, curious, without the fear that usually accompanied questions about my methods. At forty-three, Aldric possessed the kind of rugged handsomeness that only improved with age, the type that called for me like a strong magnet. Strong jaw, weathered skin, eyes that had seen too much death to be easily impressed by displays of power. This was why he was dangerous to me. He made me want to spill every secret in my head.
"Selene is the Council's greatest weapon," I said carefully. "She is the one they send when all other options fail. A true born alpha with the kind of power that makes even other alphas submit."
"And she is connected to the mafia king.”
I traced the scar on his ribs, a memento from a past battle: "The Council promised her the unrighteous packs, as a way to control both siblings. But when we kidnapped Milo, the mafia king's pet, she went awol.
"The betrayal must have enraged him."
"It should have. Instead it broke something in him." I sat up fully, wrapping the sheet around myself. "A broken king is useful. An enraged one is unpredictable."
Aldric's expression shifted to something more serious. "And your brother fits into this how?"
The question sent ice through my veins. I turned to look at him fully, studying his face for any hint of challenge, judgment or any suspicious expression… I didn't even know what I was looking for. "Milo is the key that unlocks everything."
"Because of his power? Because he is the Ashbourne wolf?"
"Because he is the sacrifice the prophecy demands." The words came out harder than I intended. "Two true alphas cannot exist in harmony. One must destroy the other. Better I control which one falls."
"He is your brother, Millen."
The gentle way he said it made me want to scream. "He is a tool. Nothing more."
"You do not believe that."
"I have to believe it." I stood abruptly, letting the sheet fall away. "Everything I have built, everything I have sacrificed, it all requires Milo to play his part exactly as planned. If I let myself think of him as anything other than necessary collateral, then all of this becomes impossible."
Aldric rose from the bed, moving to stand before me. He was taller, broader, trained to kill from childhood. But he looked at me like I was something precious and breakable.
"What did they do to you?" he asked softly. "To make you this cold?"
The question hit harder than any physical blow. For a moment I saw myself through his eyes. A woman who had sent her own parents to the slave quarters. A queen who ruled through fear. A sister who was using her brother as a weapon against his will.
"They showed me the truth," I said finally. "That power is the only thing that matters. That love makes you weak. That family is a liability unless you control it completely."
"I do not believe you are as cold as you pretend to be." His hand touched my face, gentle despite the calluses. "I have seen you after nightmares. I know you still dream about him."
"Stop." I stepped back, feeling my walls slam into place. "Milo made his choice when he was born an omega. The prophecy was clear. I am the alpha. I am the one who will unite the packs and destroy the Council. He is just the catalyst."
"Aldric crossed his arms, studying me with an intensity that made me uncomfortable. "You speak of your brother with such detachment, but I have watched you stare at that portrait in your study. The one that contains your childhood with him."
Anger suddenly flared hot inside me. If it was any other person, I would have ordered for their tongue, but seeing the way he looked coolly at me without fear, made my heart tremble.
Was I becoming weak for this man?
"That girl died the day the prophecy named me as the true alpha to rule over our kind. And for me to do that. Sentiment is a luxury I cannot afford, " I said finally.
"Everyone affords some sentiment. Even queens." He reached for his armor, beginning to dress. "You cannot build an empire on ice alone, Millen. Eventually it will crack."
"Are you questioning my methods?"
"I am questioning whether you have thought about what happens after victory. When the Council is destroyed and Milo is gone and you rule everything. Who will you be then?"
The question rattled something loose inside me, something I had kept buried for long. I thought about Milo in the south, glowing with power he did not understand, healing a king he probably thought he loved. Did he dream of me the way Aldric claimed I dreamed of him? Did he wonder if his sister ever regretted the choices she made?
"I will be what I was always meant to be," I said firmly. "The strongest alpha alive. The one who ended centuries of Council tyranny. The queen who united all wolves under one rule."
"And you will be alone."
The words hung in the air between us like frost. Aldric finished buckling his armor, his movements slower than usual. When he looked at me again, I saw something that might have been a pity.
"I should go. There are patrols to oversee."
"Aldric." I stopped him before he could reach the door. "This does not change anything between us."
"I know." He gave a smile that always makes me wonder what he was thinking, "That is what worries me."
He left without another word and I stood alone in my chambers, feeling the cold settle back into my bones. The fire still burned, but its heat could not reach me anymore.
I moved to the window, staring out at the frozen landscape, and let myself remember that day in the ravine. Aldric had been broken, bloody, barely breathing.
I had knelt beside him in the snow, feeling the pull of his fading life force, and made a choice. Not because I needed another warrior… I had hundreds. Not because I felt pity… I had buried that weakness years ago. But because I recognized something in him. A reflection of my own yearning for revenge on the council that attacked his pack.
"Live," I had commanded, my hands glowing with ice magic as I forced his body to obey. "Live and be mine."
He had obeyed, He always obeyed.
But there was something he did not know. Something I had discovered weeks after healing him, buried in reports from my spies in the eastern territories.
I had sent scouts to confirm how true the intelligence was, and to my greatest dismay and shock…
Aldric had a mate. A wife he thought was dead.
Her name was Daphne.