Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 120475 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 602(@200wpm)___ 482(@250wpm)___ 402(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120475 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 602(@200wpm)___ 482(@250wpm)___ 402(@300wpm)
“Only a billion dollars.” Charles’s voice is furious. “You’d really cheat me out of—”
“Yes.” My tone is final. “Take it. Don’t take it. It makes no difference to me.” I lean back in my chair, tapping my fingers idly against the glass. “But let me be very clear: once the hour is up, the offer is gone.” I let the words settle before delivering the final blow. “And you go back to getting nothing. Feel free to ask questions.”
Miriam exhales slowly, setting her wine glass down. Her nails click against the crystal. “You’re enjoying this.”
I tilt my head, considering her. “That,” I murmur, “is not a question.”
A muscle in her jaw flexes.
Gabriella laughs, the sound rich with something almost admiring. “Well,” she says, lifting her glass. “I’ll drink to that.”
But Charles—Charles is calculating. Simon is vibrating with barely contained fury. And Moira, beside me, is watching everything.
Tick, tick, tick.
The clock is running down.
And the wolves are cornered.
Beneath the table, Moira squeezes my hand. It sends a wave of electricity that tangles with the adrenaline of the moment and at finally facing off with my toxic family.
SIXTY-ONE
MOIRA
The moment Bane takes my hand to take me upstairs, my heart cracks wide open.
Not from fear. Not from panic.
From him.
From the sheer overwhelming weight of what just happened downstairs. The absolute power he wielded in that room—like a king granting mercy to his enemies, deciding whether to devour or dismiss.
And I watched it all.
Watched him shut them down with a single look and make them break with nothing but his silence. I watched him let them destroy themselves while he sat back, untouchable, unbothered, and completely in control.
God, that was sexy.
And now the warmth of his fingers curls around mine, so steady and grounding, the total opposite of the chaos inside my head.
Upstairs, the halls stretch long and dim, shadows spilling from sconces mounted on the walls. The air smells like old books, stale air, but also him—whiskey and heat and danger. He makes colors start to seep back into the edges of my world, and I’m afraid, but not in a sad blue kind of way.
I’m afraid with excitement. With orange and yellows, fire flickering at the edge of my vision again. Which makes me even more afraid.
I should let go. I should say something sharp to break the spell and remind both of us that I don’t need him to take my hand.
But I can’t. I just… can’t.
Because this is it. This is the moment. I feel it.
My chest aches with the force of what I want to say. It presses against my ribs.
I stop walking.
Bane does, too, turning to face me in the luminous glow of the sconces.
His gaze rakes over me, dark and unreadable, but there’s something different in his expression now. Something softer. Something devastating.
Something like realization.
“I know my father did something to make you leave.”
The words slam into me. I jerk back slightly, my pulse roaring in my ears. “You… you do?”
He nods, gripping both of my hands now, his voice low and certain. “I always knew it wasn’t you.”
My throat closes. I can’t breathe.
I’ve spent weeks believing he hated me. That he thought I chose to leave him. That he looked at me and saw a woman who walked away without looking back.
My fingers tremble as they tighten against his. “I—I wanted to tell you. But he—he threatened my brother, Bane. He kidnapped me and Mads.”
Bane lets go of my hands and steps back, dragging his fingers through his hair. I just keep spewing excuses. “He said if I didn’t disappear, if I ever came near you again—”
“Fuck. Now I wish I had murdered him. Just to see the light go out of that motherfucker’s eyes.”
“So you didn’t? It wasn’t you?” I ask because I can’t deny the thought had crossed my mind.
“No.” He shakes his head. “He really did have a disease. They said it was just a matter of months, but I guess it progressed even more quickly than any of us thought.”
Then he shakes himself and rushes back toward me, wrapping his arms around me. “Oh my god. You were kidnapped. I’m so fucking glad you’re okay.” His arms squeeze tighter. “Holy shit, that’s why you couldn’t pick up the phone that day.”
I bury my face in his chest, letting myself melt into his warmth for just a moment. Just one moment of weakness where I can pretend I’m still the old Moira—the one who would’ve launched herself at him, clawed her way up his body, and demanded he take her right here against the wall.
But I’m not her anymore. I don’t know if I can ever be her again.
“They drugged me,” I whisper, the words spilling out now that I’ve started. “I woke up in some warehouse by the river. Mads—she told me to run and leave her behind. She said they’d kill both of us and Domhn if I didn’t break it off with you.”