Chapter 371
371
Third Person’s POV
86
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Adelaide fell silent for a moment. Cedar pheromones slowly coalesced around her into a layer of ice –like coldness .
Her vertical pupils flickered faintly beneath her irises.
A suppressed lupine growl rumbled in her throat as she spoke, “Beata, show our guests out.”
Luna Skye’s fury erupted instantly. The Silverlight Pack’s signature lilac pheromones, laced with anxious sulfur, assailed the air. Her pupils shrank to fine lines.
“Adelaide, I’m not done talking! How dare you rush to usher me out? I’m your aunt!”
In her rage, her wolf claws partially emerged, and with an Alpha’s aura, she slammed her palm–clenched around a coffee cup–down onto the floor.
The sound of shattering bone china echoed through the room. Her chest heaved, and the wolf hairs at the back of her neck bristled with agitation.
Adelaide glanced down at the shattered cup at her feet. As coffee seeped over her shoes, cedar pheromones abruptly solidified into tangible pressure, chilling the very air.
She slowly raised her head. Her vertical pupils gleamed with silver–blue coldness in the sunlight, and her voice carried the gravelly texture unique to wolves, “If you dare…”
She paused, her fingertips whitening from restraint, yet showing no signs of beastly transformation. The invisible aura made Luna Skye’s breath hitched. “If you can display such fury in Soulrend Pack, if you can smash a cup in their presence and call Dwight heartless to his face, Melinda would find solace in it, and I would still consider you family. But did you not witness Melinda’s distress that night? You merely played mediator. When she sought to dissolve her mating bond and asked for your acceptance back into the pack, a simple nod from you–not just endless urgings to endure–would have offered her immense comfort. Perhaps her words about dissolving the bond were born of momentary anguish, but have you considered how your refusal might break her heart, how it might drive her to despair?”
“She cannot dissolve the mating bond!”
Luna Skye’s face flushed with urgency, her pheromones chaotic and her wolf ears trembling faintly.
Baring her fangs, she hissed, “Have I spoken in vain? If I accept her back into the pack while she’s pregnant, how would that situation be resolved? Have you truly thought about her? She holds you in such high esteem; how could you harm her like this?”
Luna Skye rose abruptly, her wolf claws extending half an inch before she forcibly retracted them.
Tears welled up as she swiped at them with a tissue, yet they kept falling.
Her voice, laced with a sob and the vibrato of a wolf’s howl, pleaded, “What are the current hardships compared to the bigger picture? As the lawful mate, does she have to fear a breeder from a nightclub? Even if she is Hunt’s daughter, raised in squalor, Dwight will eventually tire of her. In time, he will return to Melinda. Explain this to her, and she won’t insist on dissolving the bond. She’s always heeded your
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words; go speak to her, and she will listen.”
After speaking, she staggered back to her seat, her shoulders shaking with suppressed sobs as she dabbed at her face with a tissue.
Her wolf tail swept restlessly under the skirt, spreading sorrowful violet pheromones into the air like rain- dampened petals–a mix of vulnerability and helplessness.
Adelaide, seeing the resemblance between Luna Skye’s face and her own mother’s, felt a pang of discomfort at the sight of her constant tears and runny nose.
Yet she couldn’t help but raise her voice and ask, “What are you afraid of? What exactly are you fearing?”
“Fearing?”
Luna Skye, her voice muffled as she covered her face with her hands, spoke through a nasal tone. “We fear being expelled from the capital and banished to that barren land! You know full well where our territory lies–it’s a place of extreme cold and poverty. How could we endure such hardship?”
Adelaide shook her head, her tone icy. “You fear the hardships of your territory, so you choose to suffer humiliation in the capital, enduring others‘ disdain and living in degradation, even casting away the royal family’s dignity.”
“And you expect Melinda to be just as cowardly? Has Lycan Erasmus ever asked you to go to your territory? Alpha Howell holds no position in the Royal Court; he’s merely a leisured noble. Whether he goes to the territory or not is of no concern to anyone. The worries that keep you up at night are not even on Lycan Erasmus’s radar.”
“The royal family’s intentions are inscrutable to you,” Luna Skye’s voice turned cold.
“I don’t wish to discuss this further. Our situations differ. When your parents were alive, their military merits afforded us some protection. Now that they’re gone, we must tread carefully in the capital, avoiding even the recruitment of pack warriors. So please, don’t equate the Blackthorn Pack with the Silverlight Pack.”
She set down the tissue and stood up. “I won’t elaborate further. I don’t ask for your pity as family, but for the sake of Melinda’s past respect and affection for you, I beg you not to harm her. Also, recall those two individuals you sent to Soulrend Pack. Withdraw them. A subordinate who strikes their master’s underling is no good subordinate–neither Soulrend Pack nor Melinda needs such people.”
“Impossible!”
Adelaide walked to the door, made a dismissive gesture, and said firmly, “They are not subordinates. Before Melinda gives birth, I will not allow them to leave. Luna Skye, you’re not welcomed to be here at the Blackthorn Pack, Please leave.”
Luna Skye’s eyes widened. “Adelaide, you would even drive me away? I’ve always cared for you. How can you treat me like this now?”
Without lifting her eyelids, Adelaide repeated, “Beata, show our guests out.”
With that, she turned and left.
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