Chapter 55
My body was trembling uncontrollably now, the drug coursing through my veins like wildfire. Beads of sweat gathered on my forehead, dripping down my temples.
I bit down hard on the tip of my tongue, forcing a jolt of pain to keep myself grounded, then yanked my arm free from Scarlett with all the strength I had left. I didn’t expect the force of it–she stumbled backward and crashed into a side table. knocking over glasses of wine and delicate pastries. The sound shattered the hum of conversation around us, and heads turned instantly.
Gasps erupted from the guests, but I didn’t care.
Limping, staggering, I fled toward the exit, runing out the furious voices of Alpha Alaric and Luna Zara as they barked my name behind me.
I couldn’t stop. I had to get out,
Somewhere in my blurred vision. I caught a flicker of someone watching me. A tall man in a black suit. For a second, his golden eyes narrowed as if something about me felt familiar to him. But he didn’t move. He didn’t remember. Why would he
I pushed past the banquet doors.
Every step was a battle. My legs felt like iron weights, and my balance was gone. I crashed into more flower arrangements, vases shattered in my wake, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. I needed somewhere dark, quiet–somewhere to ride this out. Then suddenly, a figure blocked my path.
“Riley? Did you drink?” Maddox’s voice. Familiar, confused, too close
He stepped forward and pressed a hand to my burning forehead.
The moment his cool fingers touched my
skin, something inside me cracked wide open.
The drug surged. My body moved on instinct–mindless, starving for relief from the unbearable heat. My hands rose, clinging to his shoulders, pulling him closer.
My face burned hotter. My vision blurred further. I could barely see his face, but I knew that voice. That scent. Maddox. His body stiffened under my touch, and I could feel the moment hesitation clawed at him, He should’ve pulled away. But he
didn’t.
We were close. Too close. I could smell his cologne–sharp, clean, familiar. I could see the soft down on his cheekbones under the goiden light, the way his wolf–dark eyes traced my face like he was trying to remember every line.
His hand slipped around my waist. I felt the strength in it. The security. The betrayal.
A thousand memories surged forward. Nights spent wrapped in that same embrace, Warmth. Love. Pain.
And then the knife he’d plunged into my back.
1 gasped, blinking away the heat–induced haze, and his face swam into view–Maddox. The man who’d once held my heart. then shattered it.
ury
Deanbreak. I shoved him away with everything I had left. My hand struck his cheek with a loud, satisfying crack. “Stay the hell away from me,” 1 mapped, my voice raw with loathing
The look on his face was hollow. Ashen. He didn’t speak. Couldn’t.
† didn’t give him a chance.
I turned and bolted toward the elevator, stumbling, dragging my legs beneath ine. I barely made it inside before the doors closed, sealing me off from the cluos,
3:40 PM d
+8 Pearls
Leaning against the wall, I panted hard, the fire inside me growing more savage by the second. I was losing the fight.
By the time I reached the lobby, I could hardly hear anything. The sounds of the hotel were muffled, distant, like I was underwater.
I stumbled out the doors.
The night air didn’t help. The world spun violently, and the lights blurred into ghostly streaks. My knees gave out. I fell
forward.
And crashed into something hard. Solid. Warm.
A body.
The impact bounced me back, but before I hit the ground
, I reached out and grabbed the collar of the man in front of me.
He fell with me, pulled down by my weight, and we landed in a tangled heap.
I blinked, dazed–and looked up.
Straight into a pair of cold, piercing eyes.
Silver–flecked. Sharp. Regal.
My breath caught.
He was the tall man I’d seen earlier–the one who’d watched me as I stumbled out of the banquet hall.
And the same man I once begged for a cigarette outside the hospital, when my world was falling apart.
I tried to call out to Nyra. My wolf. My anchor. My last defense.
Please, I pleaded inwardly, wake up–help me
But there was nothing. No answering growl. No protective surge of instinct.
Just silence.
The bond between us felt muted, like someone had thrown a thick, suffocating blanket over it.
Panic twisted in my gut. Nyra had never ignored me before. Even in the darkest moments, she was always there–snarling. pacing, clawing to protect me.
Now! She was gone.
The realization hit me like ice: Scarlett hadn’t just drugged me. She’d used a witch’s brew–something brewed to suppress the
wolf inside.
My blood wasn’t just boiling from heat and humiliation–it was cursed.
And without Nyra. I was defenseless.
Alone
And falling deeper into the fire.