Free Web NovelChapter 153: Chapter 153
Aria’s POV
His eyes were wild, his veins popping, his breath ragged. My wolf watched him like one watches a cornered animal.
Francis moved closer, his muscles coiled, ready to strike again.
I kept my expression cold and detached. A calmness spread through me even in the middle of chaos. My gaze swept over the gang leader... then sliced through Sophia, who shrank back ever so slightly.
“I haven’t worked at Hemsworth Group for a long time,” I said, my voice steady, edged with frost. “I’m just a ‘wife’ in name only. Their affairs have nothing to do with me.”
I let my eyes narrow, my wolf pushing forward just enough that my tone carried a darker weight.
“If you believe your rights were violated,” I continued, “then go to a lawyer. Go to court. Don’t stand here playing thug in front of a building you clearly don’t understand.”
I lifted my chin, meeting the leader’s glare without flinching. My wolf rose behind my eyes unafraid. Something in my stare made him stiffen briefly.
“You’re Nathan’s wife!” he barked, his voice cracking. “Who else should I talk to? I’ll drag him down here myself if I have to!”
Pathetic.
I tugged lightly on Francis’s shirt, telling him we needed to go. His eyes flicked down, reading the message in my slightly parted lips and my tensed posture.
He understood immediately. Without a word, he clasped my hand and began easing us back.
But Sophia, of course, noticed.
“Grab them! They’re running!” she shrieked.
Her voice was shrill enough to make my wolf flatten her ears.
The gang leader snapped out of his confusion and lunged, seizing my wrist in a painful grip. “Trying to run, are you? Not until I see Nathan!”
His fingers clamped around my arm like iron. Pain shot up to my elbow, and the blood drained from my hand. My wolf snarled, pushing claws toward the surface.
Francis stepped forward sharply, grabbing his wrist. “Let go,” he warned, voice low.
But the man only tightened his grip, his veins pulsing on his forehead. “Bring Nathan out! Let’s see who breaks first—me, or this woman—”
“AH!”
The scream tore through the air just as a fist slammed into the gang leader’s face. He went flying backward, crashing to the burning pavement.
Everyone froze.
Rowland stood where the gang leader had been, his fist still lowered, his posture deadly. He was not the gentle Rowland I remembered.
He was more predator than man.
“Uncle Nathan can’t manage his company?” His voice was icy, each word laced with threat. “Who dares make trouble here?”
My wolf stilled.
This... was not the cheerful Rowland who used to smile every time he saw me. This was a young Alpha—raw, untempered and dangerous. His presence sliced through the crowd like a blade.
Sophia’s face twisted instantly. Of course she hates that it’s him. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
The gang leader lay groaning on the ground, blinking through dizziness. He looked like he wanted to curse, but when he met Rowland’s stare; the stare of a wolf ready to tear into flesh, his voice died in his throat.
“Y-You...” he stammered.
Then realization struck him. “You called Alpha Nathan Uncle.”
His eyes widened, and he instinctively looked at Sophia. Her expression said everything.
He turned pale.
Rowland’s gaze snapped to me, all the ferocity evaporating into concern. “Are you hurt?”
I blinked. My mind stalled for a beat...seeing him switch so fast from savage protector to worried nephew was... jarring.
Francis shot him a pointed look, then looked away with a quiet sigh.
I shook my head, and Rowland’s shoulders relaxed.
The gang leader was still crumpled by my feet. I took the moment to speak. “You want to see Nathan, so why attack me?”
His suit was wrinkled, his hair wild, the cheap bravado stripped from him.
“You’re his wife,” he muttered bitterly, unable to meet my eyes, unable to look at Rowland at all.
“I’m not,” I said flatly.
The words dropped like ice. His mouth opened, then closed again. His eyes darted to Sophia. freewēbnoveℓ.com
Sophia jumped in, desperate to salvage something. “Aria! You can’t just cut ties with Nathan because the company is in trouble!”
Instantly, heads turned. Passersby, Hemsworth employees, everyone stared at me differently now, judgment thickening the air. We were really creating a commotion.
My wolf growled low.
I met Sophia’s eyes. “Do you think dragging me here will make Nathan come running? You’re wrong.” I let out a humorless laugh. “In all of Asterfell, I’m the last person he’d show up for.”
I didn’t explain myself. I didn’t defend anything.
Instead, I tilted my head, letting a mocking smile bloom. “His true love is right here. Sophia, dear sister... I’m stepping aside. Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted?”
Gasps rippled through the crowd. Eyes whipped between us like they were watching a duel.
Sophia’s face drained of color.
She had nothing, no insult, no excuse, no lie to grasp. For the first time, she looked speechless.
And I could smell her fear. Not of me... but of what this truth meant for her.
A strange look flashed across her face. Maybe she finally realized I wasn’t the timid, gentle girl who used to stand quietly behind Nathan with her tongue tied. I had changed.
Just then, the air crackled with tension.
“Make way!” Collins’s voice thundered through the crowd.
All heads whipped toward the sound of his voice. My wolf’s ears twitched as two full units of Hemsworth security emerged...broad-shouldered males in black suits, moving with the synchronized precision of trained warriors. Their heartbeats were steady and controlled.
In an instant, they surrounded the gang leader and his lackeys like a pack closing in on prey.
The bodyguards were massive, even their suits couldn’t hide the swell of muscle beneath. Their presence alone made the gang leader shrink like a wolf cub caught stealing from an Alpha’s den.
He froze, his pupils shrinking, his breath unsteady.
Collins bowed. “Alpha Nathan.”
The sea of bodyguards parted.
And then Nathan walked through.
