Free Web NovelChapter 33: An Unexpected Guest
"Betrayer!" River growled savagely inside her head, a vibration that scraped against Rhea’s skull as the beast clawed desperately to be let loose.
Rhea’s jaw dropped, the cold realization hitting her like an iron fist. Her stomach sank. "What did you do?" she asked, her voice trembling despite her best efforts to lock it down. "Answer me, Adam!"
Adam stared at her, his dark amber eyes unreadable as he calculated his next words. The silence stretched between them, heavy and suffocating, before he let out a slow breath. "I moved him," he finally said, his deep baritone cutting through the thick tension.
"Where?" Rhea demanded, stepping closer until she could smell the crisp scent of snow and cedarwood radiating off his skin.
"Somewhere neither you nor Kaleb can reach him," Adam replied, his voice an immovable wall.
Rhea’s face twisted with pure rage. "What do you mean? That was not your choice to make!" she hissed, her chest heaving. "The boy was in my care. He was my leverage to break them!"
"And he should never have been!" Adam shot back, his Alpha aura flaring just enough to make the wooden table beneath his hands groan.
Rhea’s jaw hardened into stone, her knuckles turning white as her fists clenched at her sides. Inside her ribs, River was wild, pacing restlessly and tearing at their shared consciousness to break through the skin.
Rhea parted her lips to scream at him, but the sudden click of the council room door cut her off. Every head snapped toward the sound.
A pack guard entered, bowing low to mask his nerves before striding straight to Bernard. He leaned down, whispering a string of words into the Beta’s ear. Bernard’s thick brows furrowed, a sudden, sharp scent of confusion spiking in his pheromones. He gave a single, tight nod.
Rhea’s gaze locked onto him instantly. "Does he have the boy?" she demanded, her pulse drumming in her throat.
Bernard shifted his eyes to Adam first, then turned a grim look toward her. "There is someone at the perimeter asking to speak with—" he paused, his jaw tightening. "You."
Rhea frowned, a quick, suspicious glance darting between Adam and the Beta before she focused back on Bernard. "Who is it?"
Before he could answer, the sharp click of boots echoed from the outer hallway, cutting through the silence of the chamber. The heavy doors swung open, and the room froze.
Rhea’s silver eyes widened. A figure stepped into the torchlight, reaching up with a trembling hand to push a heavy woolen hood off her face.
It was Kat.
Instantly, River let out a deafening, bloodcurdling roar inside Rhea’s mind. "The absolute nerve of this parasite! Let me stretch my jaws, Rhea! Let me out so I can rip her throat from her spine right where she stands!"
Rhea didn’t let the fury show on her face. Instead, she kept her cold, silver gaze pinned to Adam, her chest heaving in ragged patterns as the puzzle pieces refused to fit. "Why is she here?" she whispered.
Adam said nothing. He merely tracked Kat’s frantic, tear-stained face with a cool, detached look.
The air in the room grew suffocating.
Kat’s scent was sharp with maternal panic, and the heavy, sour note of betrayal flooded the chamber. Rhea’s mind raced. Why now? Why tonight?
"What did you do, Adam?" she murmured through clenched teeth. "Don’t tell me you—"
Adam stood up, the legs of his grand chair scraping against the stone as he pushed it back. "Attend to your guest, Rhea," he said smoothly.
Around the table, Bernard and the war elders rose in perfect unison, turning toward the secondary exit.
As Adam stepped past her side, his massive frame cast a long shadow over her. He paused, leaning down until his hot breath brushed the shell of her ear. "I am not your enemy, little wolf," he growled softly.
Rhea’s jaw locked, her fists shaking with the urge to strike him as she watched his broad shoulders vanish through the door. The moment the latch clicked, Kat took a frantic step forward.
Rhea’s eyes instantly flashed a blinding, dangerous silver. "You better have a goddamn good reason for breathing the air in this room," she said, her voice dropping. "Or Kaleb will receive your head on a silver spike by dawn." fгeewebnovёl.com
"Yes! Let me do the honors!" River barked savagely.
Kat looked at her for a fraction of a second, her lips trembling. Then, breaking all protocol, she hurried forward and collapsed heavily onto the hard stone, falling straight at Rhea’s feet.
"I don’t care about Kaleb anymore," she sobbed, her fingers clawing at the hem of Rhea’s cloak. "I don’t care about Ironfang. I just want to see my son again. I want to hold my baby."
Rhea froze, her skin prickling as if Kat’s touch was made of fire. She took a sharp step back, tearing her cloak from the woman’s grip, and stared down at her sister with absolute disdain. Kat lay there, dry heaves racking her chest, her face completely ruined by tears.
"Please, Rhea," she wailed from the floor, her voice cracking. "I am ready to do whatever it takes. Anything."
Rhea frowned, swallowing down the bitter taste of panic rising in her throat. Her gaze drifted instinctively toward the door Adam had just walked through. She had no idea where the boy was. Adam had stripped away her cards. She had to play with what she had. She shifted her cold, evaluating gaze back down to her sister.
"If you tell me exactly what happened to Eli," Rhea whispered, her voice cutting through Kat’s sobs like a razor, "then you can go home with your son."
Kat looked up, one hand moving protectively to cradle her swollen pregnant belly. She swallowed hard, fresh tears spilling over her lashes. "I didn’t kill him," she choked out, her voice barely audible. "He’s not dead, Rhea. Eli’s not dead." frёewebηovel.cѳm
Rhea’s vision went entirely white. Her heart slammed against her ribs so violently it felt like a physical blow. "What? How?" she gasped, her hands trembling, eyes burning. "You all looked me in the eyes and told me he was dead. An omega told me you poisoned him. So what the hell are you saying to me right now?"
"Those traitors," Kat murmured, her head dropping as she stared at the stone floor. "We just told you he was dead to avoid all the questions that would follow from the other packs."
Rhea’s head spun, the metallic scent of her old grief twisting into something feral and volatile. Inside her, even River let out a stunned, agonizing whimper as the words settled into their bond.
"So where is he?" Rhea whispered, her eyes burning with a lifetime of unshed tears. "Where is my Eli, Kat?"
Kat swallowed down a dry lump, her lips trembling violently as she stared back, her scent spiking with a sudden, suffocating fear, as if some ancient terror was holding the words back.
"Answer the damn question!" Rhea barked, her voice echoing off the stone pillars as she lunged forward. "Where is Eli?"
Kat’s face went white, her lips trembling. "I don’t know."
Rhea froze. "What?"
Kat started crying harder. "And Kaleb doesn’t know either."
