Chapter 58 Chapter Fifty-seven
ARA
I stood in front of the mirror, trying to believe what it was telling me.
That I looked fierce and beautiful and dangerous even though I didn't feel like it.
The dress was fire-engine red, like liquid silk poured over my skin. It ended high on my thighs, the slit climbing so high that every time I moved I felt like a dare.
One wrong step was it would take and the lace of my red thong would flash the entire room.
Thayne had chosen it on purpose. He always did.
He’d also ordered my hair down.
So I let it fall, heavy and dark-blonde, brushing the middle of my back, framing my face in soft waves.
My lips were painted the same shade as the dress, my eyes lined sharp enough to cut glass.
I looked like sin dressed up as innocence. I looked like his.
The door opened behind me.
I didn’t turn right away. I watched him in the reflection instead.
Thayne stepped in wearing all black: open shirt, sleeves rolled to the elbows, tattoos crawling down his forearms like black fire.
The overhead ceiling lights caught the hard lines of his chest, the deep cut of his abs, every muscle carved like he was built to ruin lives and break hearts.
His frosty green eyes found me in the mirror and stopped dead.
Something dark and hungry flashed across his face.
First, his jaw flexed, then his gaze slowly dragged down my body like a hand, slow, greedy, burning.
When he reached the slit and the bare skin of my thigh, his tongue touched his bottom lip like he could already taste me.
He didn’t speak. He didn’t have to.
The look said everything: Mine. And tonight I’m showing the whole fucking world.
My stomach flipped. This was only my third party on his arm, but it felt like walking into a lion’s den wearing meat.
His father would be there.
Ethan would be there.
Madison Sultry, sorry, Sutton, would be there.
Ursula, the wicked witch from Little Mermaid would be there, too.
It wouldn't be just any dinner party, it would be a gathering of witches, wizards and wolves.
Every person who wanted to see Thayne bleed and lose would be watching, waiting for weakness.
And I was the weakness.
He finally moved, crossing the room in three silent strides. His hand slid around my waist from behind, fingers spreading wide and possessive over my stomach. He pulled me back against his chest, hard muscle against soft curves.
“You look like a sin I want to commit in front of everyone,” he murmured against my ear, voice low and rough. His teeth grazed the shell of it. “I should bend you over right now and ruin this dress before we even leave.”
My breath caught. Heat rushed between my legs.
But he didn’t. He just stared at me in the mirror like he was memorising how I looked right before he dragged me into war.
Then he pressed something cold into my hand.
I looked down.
The Slade family ring. The one from the photo he posted. Heavy black gold, massive diamond in the centre, smaller black stones around it like drops of dried blood.
He slid it onto my finger himself.
No words. Just that look again on his face and in his eyes, utter possession.
My heart was pounding so hard I was scared the whole room could hear it.
Tonight wasn’t just a party.
Tonight was a declaration.
That I was his.
His woman. His future wife. His living, breathing ticket to the birthright his father kept trying to rip away.
Thayne’s hand rested low on my back, his fingers spread wide, thumb brushing the bare skin through the slit of my dress like he was reminding every inch of me who I belonged to.
The heat of his palm burned hotter than the ring on my finger.
We stepped into the helicopter like we’d done it a hundred times.
The city shrank beneath us in seconds, lights glittering like broken glass shards.
Five minutes later, the chopper kissed the rooftop of the Nines & Six, the most exclusive private club after the ones Slade Corps owned in the city.
The elevator doors slid open and the noise hit us, or rather, me, first: low music, clinking crystal and wine glasses, a hundred fake laughs trying to sound real.
Then, the silence.
It rolled through the crowd like a shockwave.
Heads turned. Phones lifted. Eyes widened, mouths hung open.
Every CEO, every trust-fund prince, every Hollywood face that usually pretended they were untouchable suddenly forgot how to blink.
I felt their stares crawl over me, the red dress, the thigh-high slit, the ring that screamed Slade money, the man at my side who looked like he ate souls for breakfast.
Thayne didn’t even slow down. His escorts carved a path through the crowd like Moses parting the Red Sea, and he guided me forward, calm, lethal, owning the room without saying a word.
But I saw the tiny things that only I would notice.
The way his jaw ticked when someone stared too long.
The way his fingers tightened on my waist every time a man’s gaze dropped to my legs or my breasts.
The way his eyes scanned the room like a predator counting threats.
Because they were all here.
His father, standing on the far balcony like a proud king on a throne.
Ethan, that slimy pervert, was beside him, wearing that same sick smirk he’d had in the office, blood still crusted at the corner of his swollen mouth.
And every single person in this room was waiting for blood tonight.
Thayne leaned down, lips brushing my ear, voice so low only I could hear.
“Smile, little lamb. Tonight we remind them who the real wolf is.”
I opened my mouth to ask Thayne if we could disappear somewhere quiet after this circus of a party, somewhere the cameras couldn’t find us, when movement on the marble staircase caught my eye.
Madison. I'd known she would be at the dinner party, but her presence still unnerved me.
She floated up the steps like poison wearing diamonds, her hair gleaming, lips painted the brightest shade of blood-red.
She was Jezebel from head to toe.
Halfway up she paused, turned her head, and looked straight down at me. One slow, venomous smile spread across her face, the kind that said I know something you don’t.
My stomach twisted.
Then Ursula appeared behind her, black dress cut down to her navel, her hips swaying like a warning.
I rolled my eyes.
The two of them together looked like trouble stitched into silk.
Ursula leaned in, air-kissed Madison’s cheeks like they were old sorority sisters, then kept climbing.
Straight to Ethan.
I felt Thayne go rigid beside me.
Ursula didn’t stop at Ethan. She kissed him full on the mouth, wet and hungry, tongue and all.
Okay…. Wait… What?!
Ethan’s hands slid down to her ass, yanked her flush against him, grinding like they were seconds from fucking right there on the balcony.
The crowd actually clapped. Some wolf-whistled. Phones flashed, recording, snapping photos.
My jaw dropped.
This was disgusting! People were cheering family incest?
I couldn’t even blink. Ethan was supposedly Mr. Slade Senior’s first son. And Ursula was his stepsister.
This was incest on a balcony for the whole world to cheer!
They finally broke apart, lips swollen, smug as hell.
Mr. Slade Senior lifted his glass, that dead-fish smile stretched across his face. He tapped the crystal with a fork until the room fell silent.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he announced, voice smooth and cold as a blade. “A toast to new beginnings.”
Madison curled her hand around his arm, stroking it like a lover, her eyes sparkling with fake tears of joy.
“Tonight my true heir, Ethan, steps into the light at last,” Mr Slade Senior continued. “And I am proud to announce his engagement to the exquisite Ursula.”
The room erupted in polite, vicious applause.
Engagement. Ursula.
Thayne's sister was now engaged to Ethan, their step brother.
My head spun so hard I swayed. Thayne’s arm locked around my waist like steel, holding me upright.
Madison leaned into the microphone next, voice dripping honey. “We’re going to be one big happy family.”
She looked straight down at me when she said it.
The smile on her face said she’d planned every second of this nightmare.
And the worst part?
Half the room was already turning to stare at us, waiting for Thayne to explode, waiting for me to cry, waiting for the Slade empire to finally tear itself apart in public.