Page 69 of Rejected By My Shadow Alpha
Lena's jaw clenched. "That cursed bond. One look was all it took. She was his, and he was hers. Nothing else mattered." She looked away, as if hiding the sting still lingering after all these years. "She told Alfred that she didn't betray, she simply followed the bond, but in doing so, she destroyed me."
My father sighed, his expression cold. "And so, Lena and I found a common ground in our betrayal. Her heart was broken, and mine was furious. Lunaris had wealth, territory, and loyalty that the Council envied. It was a simple equation. I offered the others a taste of what Lunaris owned in exchange for looking the other way."
I stared at him, disgust clawing up my throat. "You used her to get your hands on Lunaris' wealth," I whispered, turning to Lena.
Lena's eyes cut to him, filled with the sharpness of something long buried. "Don't flatter yourself, Ruby. I knew exactly what I was getting into," she said, her voice was cold, but there was a tremble beneath it. "The plan was to dismantle Lunaris, to take control, not to slaughter them, not to murder him."
She stepped toward Alfred, rage flashing in her eyes like lightning cracking the sky. "You killed him, Alfred. That wasn't part of the deal."
My father didn't flinch. "As long as Betty was alive, there was no way I'd let him live," he said, his voice like frost. "She made her choice, so he had to go."
I felt the breath leave my lungs.
Lena stared at him like he was something foul that had crawled out of the grave. "You cold, calculating bastard," she hissed. "You killed the only man I ever loved, and you kept yours. You let Betty live locked in your mansion to satisfy your sexual fantasies while you ripped mine away like he was nothing."
Her voice cracked then, but she didn't stop. "You used me, and I let you. I thought I could control the fire, but you burned down everything." Her fists trembled at her sides. "He was good, you know. He would have spared you, but you made sure there was no mercy left."
Alfred's jaw tensed, but he said nothing.
"And now you want to do the same to her child?" Lena spat, her voice lower now but filled with venom. "You still don't see the cost, do you?"
"Enough!" My father snapped, his eyes cold and hard. "All of that is in the past now. We are here now, Lena, you and I. Let's wrap this up and go our separate ways. He is dead, and so is Betty. We both lost them, okay? This bickering will get us nowhere now."
A silence fell, one that stung and crackled with all the things left unsaid.
"I left New York after that," Lena continued, her voice thinner now, pain bleeding through. "There was nothing left for me, nothing but ghosts. I'd lost everything." Her gaze flicked to my father, bitter and scornful. "But the Goddess didn't let it end there. She took Betty from you. She made you pay."
I shook my head slowly, sick to my stomach. "You hated each other and still, you banded together to destroy an entire pack." It didn't make sense.
Lena's laugh was short and humorless. "We didn't need to like each other. We just needed a shared enemy, and the entire Lunaris was our common enemy."
She walked over to the chest and let her hand hover above it, her expression cooling again. "But Alfred paid for his recklessness. He didn't realize the chest was blood-sealed and only an alpha of Lunaris blood could open it. When he killed the alpha, the key died with him."
"And the whole plan crumbled," I said, oddly satisfied that their smooth schemes were frustrated for years.
"Yes. Until Drew returned seven years ago, claws full of vengeance, and just like that, the game reset," she said softly, almost to herself. "Back then, he didn't know who Drew really was. He thought he was just another rogue wolf who survived the purge, a stray with nothing to lose. He had no idea Drew was the heir, the alpha's nephew. He believed he'd wiped out the bloodline when he burned Lunaris to the ground."
My stomach turned. "So, when did he find out?"
"The night I saw Drew alive, some months ago, when I moved to the safe house," Lena said quietly. "That was when I called Alfred. I told him the alpha of Lunaris had survived, the same one who died in the car crash, and that he was the only one who could open the chest."
She exhaled, her gaze distant. "He was furious because it seemed fate was against him." Lena let out a quiet laugh. "The irony of fate—a pack he had wiped out resurrected from the ashes to produce an alpha that would become a fated mate to his daughter. This meant everything he destroyed still had a beating heart. But we couldn't take him down because we needed him alive."
A chill ran down my spine.
The memory came crashing back. The night I heard that phone call in my father's study, his voice low but clear as a blade: "He's dead. This time for good." He hadn't known Drew was the alpha then.
I looked at Lena. "It was you," I whispered. "You were the one he was speaking to that night."
She said nothing, but her silence was confirmation enough. My knees went weak, rage and sorrow crashing together inside me.
"Both of you are sick." I spat with venom in my heart. If I hadn't been tied up, I would have made a dash for one of them. "I guess Drew being alive was fate mocking you two, so you will be haunted for the rest of your lives."
Lena's smirk was sharp. "Color me surprised when I heard rumors of rogue wolves of Lunaris descent, trying to rebuild. I had to see it myself. I found the safe house some months ago," she continued. "I came in looking like any other desperate rogue. Imagine my shock when I saw Drew alive. He told me he had faked his death to escape Alfred."
I stayed quiet, my fingers working carefully at the knot binding my wrists. Let her keep talking, it was buying me time, time for Drew to find us. They had no idea he was still alive. He'd become the ghost they couldn't kill, a cat with nine lives, and he was coming.
"I stayed to watch him and feed Alfred information. The plan was simple. Lure Drew in, get him to open the chest, then kill him." She flicked her eyes to Liora. "Until you saved Alex. I did a check on you and realized you were Ruby, Alfred's daughter. Alfred had told me about you and Drew and the child being his, but I was not convinced at first."
