Page 70 of Rejected By My Shadow Alpha
"Then you tried to kill her," I hissed.
"We had to test her," Lena said coldly. "The curse confirmed she's his. When Drew healed her, we tried again. This time, I sent a mad wolf to do the job to make it look like a random attack, and Drew saved her, but something mysterious changed everything. The wolf I sent told me he would have killed Liora before Drew came out, but she had silver hair that had some strange powers that made him unable to attack right away before Drew came out with you. Then, we realized she might be useful to us, more useful than Drew. So the plan changed; take Drew out and bring you and Liora here."
Alfred stepped in, voice calm and cruel. "Drew's too reckless. Liora is young, powerful, and malleable." His expression said otherwise. He could see that Liora would not be easy to control.
My hands curled into fists. I could barely breathe. "You'll get nothing from us. You won't use my daughter for this. We are not your pawns."
"You will help me convince her to open it," he said, stepping toward me. "Do this, and I will make you the richest heiress alive. You'll rule beside me or watch her powers be extracted by force, even if it kills her."
My knees buckled. "Please let her go. She's just a child."
"I'm not a monster," he said almost gently. "Ruby, your daughter has been favored by the Goddess. Get her to do this for me, and I will let her go for your sake."
"No!" I screamed. Oh, Drew, please hurry, I prayed with panic in my heart
Liora stirred, and her head lifted weakly. She opened her eyes, and something shifted in the air. An eerily calm presence enveloped the atmosphere
"Alfred," her voice shifted, softer, richer, and older. "I warned you, but you traded love for greed and legacy for ruin. You will never own the Lunaris soul."
I froze. Lena's eyes widened, and my father's face drained of color. That voice…it was my mother's.
"Betty?" my father rasped.
"You destroyed the one thing you could never buy, loyalty. Now, you will die trying to replace it with fear."
"Enough!" he roared, his voice thunderous with rage. "Start the extraction!"
Lena reached toward the control panel, pressing a button. The machine whirred and power flared. Liora screamed.
"No!" I screamed, wrenching against the knots until my wrists hurt. "Stop! You'll kill her!"
My father stood firm. "Then let her die. Let the chest open with her last breath."
I turned to Lena, desperate. "Please, you said you loved Lunaris. Don't let him do this!"
Lena didn't move. Her face was stone. Liora writhed, her body convulsing as the machine pulled at her essence, light flickering through her veins like starlight being torn apart. Her silver hair flared like fire, her body arched in agony.
"Liora!" I screamed, sobbing now, my throat raw and my heart breaking, but no one moved. No one stopped it, and I realized, if Drew didn't get here now, I was going to lose everything.
Chapter 31
Drew
It was Lena. She had been the mole all along.
I paced my office like a beast barely restrained, the walls too tight, too close. My gut had warned me there was a traitor, but never in a thousand guesses would I have landed on her. Lena. She had been loyal, sharp, and always at my side. She'd played her role too well and played me like a damn fool.
While I quietly questioned Jay's loyalty, it had been Lena planting those seeds of doubt. She'd whispered just loud enough that others in the pack would challenge me for choosing Ruby as my Luna, stirring unrest, feeding hesitation, and I almost bought it. But everything shifted that night. I spotted a hooded figure barely a week after the attack on Liora, her frame unmistakable, standing too close to a Cornerstone wolf at the forest's edge, some distance from the safe house. She never turned to the camera and never revealed her face, but I had already installed night-vision filters on the perimeter feeds, and the silhouette matched hers too well to ignore. I hadn't confronted her, not then. I needed strong proof.
Instead, I waited and tracked her. I slipped a monitoring chip into her phone, same as I'd done with Jay's when suspicion first darkened his name. I needed proof, real, undeniable proof. So, I baited her. I told Lena about my plan to propose to Ruby. No one else knew about it, just her. If word got out, I'd know who opened their mouth.
Some hours ago, Jay, whom I had nearly condemned, asked me if I truly planned to marry Ruby. That was it. The slip-up I needed. It had been Lena. She had taken the bait and now, she'd gone too far by delivering Ruby and Liora straight to Alpha Alfred.
Jay burst into the office, panting, exhilarated. His eyes burned with adrenaline.
"I found them," he gasped. "Ruby and Liora. I tracked Lena's signal. She's at Cornerstone… in the underground lab."
My instincts, already sharpened to a razor's edge, flared. My heart beat wildly. It was now or never.
