Chapter 46: Forty Six

‎Aldric

‎

‎The private study on the top floor of Ashveil Tower was colder than usual this morning.

‎I sat behind the heavy oak desk, the single damning photograph lying flat in front of me like a verdict. The image was brutally sharp.

‎ Zander had the girl pinned against the service hallway wall, her dress shoved up around her waist, his hand wrapped around her throat. Her head was thrown back, lips parted in raw, unmistakable pleasure. My son looked like a man who had finally lost the war he had been fighting inside himself for years.

‎I had expected resistance from her.

‎I had expected her to slip.

‎I had not expected my own blood to fall so completely.

‎The door opened without a knock. Dorian Vorne entered, his pale grey eyes sharp as ever. He closed the door behind him and took the chair across from me, glancing once at the photograph before meeting my gaze.

‎“You’ve seen it,” he said.

‎“I have.”

‎Dorian leaned forward. “He’s not just slipping, Aldric. He’s breaking. That look on his face… that’s not simple lust. That’s recognition. His wolf knows her even if his mind is still fighting it.”

‎I picked up the photograph again, studying my son’s expression. The hunger there was visceral. The same boy I had trained to be cold and precise had turned feral the moment he got his hands on her.

‎Dorian continued, voice low. “Celeste is holding herself together, but she saw the first image. She’s angry. She wants the girl removed. But the real problem isn’t Celeste. It’s Zander. If he keeps pulling at this thread, he will unravel everything we built.”

‎I set the photo down and met Dorian’s eyes.

‎For a long moment, neither of us spoke.

‎Then Dorian leaned back and said the words I had been avoiding since last night.

‎“It’s time, Aldric.”

‎I raised an eyebrow. “Time for what?”

‎“To tell him who she really is.”

‎The words landed like a stone in still water.

‎I stared at him. “You want me to tell Zander that the woman he’s obsessed with is the same omega he rejected that night? The girl he stood in front of two hundred wolves and called disgusting? The one he made kneel on that cold floor while they all clapped?”

‎Dorian didn’t blink. “Yes. Before he finds out on his own before she tells him. Before this pull between them makes him choose her over everything. You know what happens when an alpha’s wolf locks onto someone like that. Logic disappears and loyalty shifts. He will turn on you, Aldric, on the alliance and on the future we planned.”

‎I stood slowly and walked to the window. Chicago stretched out below, cold and glittering under the morning sun. Everything I had spent four decades protecting the packs, the bloodlines, the control was balanced on a knife’s edge because of one small omega with amber eyes.

‎“If I tell him the truth,” I said quietly, “he will see me as the man who ordered him to destroy her. He will remember that night in full. The words I fed him. The applause. The way he walked away while she stayed on her knees. He will hate me for making him do it.”

‎“He already suspects something,” Dorian replied. “Last night you planted the seed with ‘the ones you forgot.’ He’s been searching for the answers since then of course he'll be wrecked. If you wait any longer, the girl will get to him first.

‎I turned back to face him. My jaw tightened.

‎Dorian pressed on. “Tell him now. Frame it the right way. Tell him she is a threat who has returned for revenge. Tell him we protected him from the truth all these years. Tell him choosing her means choosing chaos over duty, over Celeste. Over the future we planned for him.”

‎I returned to my desk and sat down heavily.

‎The photograph stared up at me. Zander’s face hungry, lost and desperate looked back.

‎For the first time in decades, doubt crept in.

‎What if telling him the truth didn’t bring him back under control?

‎What if it pushed him straight into her arms?

‎What if the pull between them was already stronger than the loyalty I had beaten into him since he was a boy?

‎Dorian watched me carefully. “Aldric. We cannot afford to wait. The longer you let this fester, the more power she gains over him. Tell him today. Bring him here. Show him the old files from that night. Make him understand that the girl he wants is the same one he once rejected on your orders. Make him see that going back to her now would destroy everything we built.”

‎I picked up the photograph one last time.

‎My son’s eyes burned with something I had never seen in him before.

‎Not obedience or ambition.

‎Something far more dangerous.

‎Possession.

‎I set the photo down and nodded once, slowly.

‎“Bring him to me this afternoon,” I said. My voice was calm, but the weight behind it was final. “I will tell him who she really is. I will remind him of that night in the hall and I will make sure he understands exactly what choosing her would cost him.”

‎Dorian stood, satisfied.

‎But as he reached the door, I spoke again.

‎“And Dorian… if he still chooses her after he knows the truth…”

‎I looked up, eyes cold.

‎“Then we remove the choice entirely.”

‎The door clicked shut behind him.

‎I remained seated, staring at the empty space where my son’s future had once been so perfectly mapped out.

‎The clock on the wall ticked steadily.

‎Outside, the city continued its indifferent rhythm.

‎But inside this room, the decision had been made.

‎Today, Zander would learn the full weight of that night.

‎He would remember the girl he had rejected.

‎And depending on how he reacted, either the girl would be erased…

‎…or my own son would become the next problem I had to solve.