Free Web NovelChapter 406: Chapter 406
Aria’s POV
Jonathan’s posture sharpened, ready to block her again but I stepped around him.
I handed Lana to him without breaking eye contact with Gina. He hesitated, then took her carefully.
I rolled my wrist once. The air shifted.
I let a fraction of my aura slip free. I was taller than Gina and probably stronger.
“Gina,” I said softly, my voice colder than winter wind, “you are Grandma Jennifer’s guest. I have shown you respect. That does not mean I do not have a temper.”
I flexed my fingers.
“Let’s see if you can handle a slap from someone you call a witch.”
Her bravado evaporated instantly. Her scent changed from fury to embarrassment.
“You—” she stammered. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
“Enough, Gina,” Jennifer cut in firmly. “This has nothing to do with Aria.”
She gave me an apologetic glance.
I exhaled slowly and took Lana back into my arms. Calm returned to my posture, but it was the calm of a mountain before an avalanche.
Jennifer’s gaze lingered on me differently now.
She had underestimated me.
Gina, finding no support, retreated to Nathan’s bedside and collapsed dramatically beside him.
“Nathan,” she cried, “they say it’s stress, but someone caused it. And she’s here acting innocent.”
Her words weren’t loud. They didn’t need to be.
In the quiet room, they landed like accusations carved in stone.
Gina’s voice dripped with sarcasm, thick and bitter.
I felt my lips curve just slightly with a faint smile that disappeared as quickly as it came.
Her words no longer pierced. They barely scratched.
There was a time when I would have questioned myself, wondered if I was too much, too cold, too proud.
But wolves do not survive by doubting their instincts. I had learned to let insults slide off like rain off fur.
My heartbeat was steady. My breathing, controlled. My wolf, quiet but alert.
Then Nathan spoke.
“Leave.”
The word was low and strained. He had been biting his lip, I could smell the faint copper in the air.
Gina’s scent flared instantly with a mix of hope, triumph and petty victory.
She straightened, chin lifting as if she’d just been crowned.
“What are you still standing here for?” she snapped at me. “Didn’t you hear? Nathan wants you out!”
I raised a brow.
Without a single word, I turned.
Lana shifted in my arms, her small fingers gripping my collar. I could leave now, return to Shevron Estates, to my territory, to quiet air untainted by old wounds.
I took a step toward the door.
“I meant you.” Nathan’s voice cut through the room.
It wasn’t loud, but it was sharp.
I paused and turned to him.
His teeth were clenched, I could hear the tension in his jaw. But his eyes... his eyes weren’t on Gina, they were on me. As if I might vanish if he blinked.
Gina froze.
“Me?” she asked, pointing at herself.
Nathan didn’t even bother answering. He gave her a single cold glance and turned his face away, dismissing her existence entirely.
The shift in power was immediate.
Her scent soured with a mix of shock, humiliation and wounded pride. Color flooded her cheeks and kept spreading.
For a moment, I almost pitied her.
Jennifer inhaled sharply, stepping in before the tension could sharpen again.
“Alright, Gina. Nathan just woke up. He needs rest. Let’s all step out.”
Her tone brooked no argument.
“Leave one staff member,” she ordered briskly. “Everyone else, out. Out!”
Nathan’s POV
They all stepped out and the door closed.
And with it, whatever fire had been holding me upright went out.
I felt it physically, like cold water had been dumped over my head. My shoulders sagged into the mattress. My wolf lay down heavily inside me.
The staff member stood near the wall, stiff as prey in a predator’s den. She didn’t dare move. I could hear her heartbeat, it was fast and nervous. It seemed as though she was afraid to even breathe too loudly standing in the presence of an Alpha.
But I didn’t feel like an Alpha.
I stared at the ceiling for a long moment, then turned my head toward her.
“Tell me,” I said quietly, my voice rough from earlier restraint, “if someone made a grave mistake... caused significant harm to another... and now wants to apologize and make amends—how should they do it?”
Her scent shifted instantly with a mix of confusion and surprise.
She blinked at me like I’d just spoken a foreign language.
“Alpha...” she started, scratching her head.
I didn’t give her time to escape.
“If that person is willing to give anything, maybe money, power, love, for forgiveness...do you think they could be forgiven?” I asked. “Could things go back to how they were?”
I fixed my eyes on her, not as her Alpha, but as a man who had lost something vital.
She swallowed.
“Uh... maybe?”
Maybe. The word was weak and unsatisfying.
I pushed further.
“What if it involved jail time?” I asked, my voice tightening despite myself. “Because of his distrust, he refused to listen to her desperate pleas. Insisted on sending her to prison for a year and six months. And cost her the job she loved.”
The memory hit like silver. Aria standing in front of me, her eyes bright with disbelief. Voice breaking as she tried to explain.
And me turning away, choosing evidence over instinct, pride over bond.
“Prison?!” the staff member rt4 burst out, shaking her head violently. “No way! If someone sent me to jail, I’d never forgive them!”
The room went cold, even my wolf flinched.
