Semua Bab The Alpha’s Regret: My Ex-Mate is a Mafia Legend: Bab 21 - Bab 30

"You think you’ve got me cornered, don't you, Blackmoor?" I gripped the edge of the dais, the microphone feedback screaming against the sudden silence of the Silverfang Hall. The pink diamond pendant—my mother's legacy, a piece of art forged in the fires of the Nightfall Atelier—felt heavy in my palm. I stared down at the assembly of wolves, their eyes wide with the predatory hunger I had once been foolish enough to mistake for kinship."You're a scavenger, Xender," Tristan Blackmoor hissed, his hand clamped around my wrist with enough pressure to crush bone. "You stole from Tricia. You stole from this pack. Do you think we don't know what you are?"I didn't flinch. I twisted my arm, the movement fluid and predatory, and shrugged him off. I didn't care about the bruises forming on my skin. I cared about the truth."Prove it," I said, my voice cutting through the hall like a razor. "You claim that pendant is yours, Chloe? Then tell me the elemental composition of the setting. Name the

"Is this supposed to be a pack tribunal? Or just another amateur production by the Blackmoor circus?"I turned, my jaw tightening. Tristan Blackmoor and Seraphina Duskryn were hovering in the entryway of the intensive care ward, their expressions a masterclass in performative concern. Seraphina was draped in designer silk, her eyes wide with a practiced, shallow sheen of 'sorrow' that didn't reach her predatory gaze."Xender," Seraphina breathed, her voice a tremor of fake sanctity. "Tricia might never wake up because of your relentless cruelty. How can you stand there with such a hollow soul? Have you forgotten the oath of the Stormriven? The honor our ancestors died for?"I let out a sharp, jagged laugh, the sound grating against the sterile silence of the CCU. "Don't talk to me about honor, Seraphina. You’ve been recycling that same script for weeks. It’s stale. Try a new act.""She’s dying, Xender!" Tristan barked, his face flushing with a rehearsed, righteous fury. "Tricia is the

"You think you can bury me with a digital file, you arrogant little stray?"Seraphina’s shriek tore through the silence of the CCU, her face a twisted, bleeding ruin of malice. She lunged for the camera, her fingers like talons, but I was faster. I didn't just move; I struck. My hand caught her wrist in midair, and I twisted, pinning her back against the tiled wall with enough force to rattle the teeth in her head."You’re done, Seraphina," I growled, my voice vibrating with the suppressed hunger of my wolf. "The performance is over. The curtain has fallen. Look at the lens."Samuel held the recording device aloft, the red light blinking like a mocking eye. Seraphina’s gaze snapped to it, and the color drained from her skin until she looked like a corpse in a silk dress.Tristan rushed forward, his hands hovering, uncertainty and rage warring in his eyes. "Seraphina! What is he talking about? What did you do?""I did nothing!" she wailed, her tears no longer a calculated display but t

"Tricia is the kind of wolf who bites the hand that feeds her, but she’s smart enough to know when to turn that bite on her master."I leaned back on the couch, watching the feed on my phone. The audio was crisp—the frantic, desperate pleas of Seraphina Duskryn, the cold, calculating instructions she’d hissed into Tricia’s ear. It was a digital suicide note for the Duskryn bloodline."She kept the recording," I mused, a slow, predatory grin spreading across my face. "I thought she was too busy playing the martyr to think ahead."Lucien didn't look away from me. He sat in his chair, his posture loose, his eyes tracing the line of my throat. The grey suit he wore softened the lethal edge of his presence, but the scent of him—woodsmoke and iron—reminded me that he was the Alpha who ran the Nightfall Territory."You knew she had it," he said, his voice a low vibration. "You baited Seraphina, you pushed her until she felt so cornered she tried to kill her own pawn, and you gave Tricia the

"Do you honestly believe I’m so starved for an alliance that I’d crawl back to you, Seraphina?"I stood by the window of the private suite, watching the moonlight bleed across the Nightfall Territory. The air in the room was stale, thick with the scent of antiseptic and the bitter, metallic tang of Seraphina Duskryn’s desperation. She stood near the door, her face a pale mask of calculated restraint."Xender Stormriven," she murmured, her voice dripping with a fake, honeyed sweetness. "You’ve spent your life acting as if you’re untouchable. I’m giving you a chance to stop the bleeding. If we reconcile, if we show the pack a united front, we can neutralize the threat Lucien Varkane poses. You’re being used, Xender. He’s just waiting for the right moment to gut you."I turned, my gaze locking onto hers. The silence stretched, heavy and lethal."You’re talking about threats, Seraphina, but you’re the one who tried to orchestrate my end," I said, my voice cold. "Do you think I don't know