Chapter 215
ELENA
The phone was slipping in my sweaty palm, but I refused to hang up.
“I understand protocol,” I said tightly, forcing my voice to stay even. “I’m not asking for full disclosure. I’m trying to ascertain if Maggie is being treated fairly and afforded her right of due process.”
Static crackled on the line.
“I’m sorry, Miss Hart. No information is being released outside of Council investigation channels. Please submit formal inquiries through your regional Alpha authority-”
“Which I am,” I snapped. “Or don’t you recognize the name Moonstone?”
The voice on the other end hesitated for just a fraction too long.
It was answer enough.
They weren’t going to tell me anything.
Not now. Maybe not ever.
Gritting my teeth, I ended the call with a sharp jab of my thumb.
The screen went black.
I stared at it for a moment, anger knotting inside me like a living thing.
They were shutting me out. They were shutting us out.
Like Maggie didn’t deserve a defense. Like she didn’t deserve someone on her side.
I spun on my heel, ready to storm toward my father’s office, ready to demand he throw his Alpha weight around and pull whatever strings he needed to get me access-
When a hand caught my wrist.
“Miss Elena!” a maid gasped, breathless, skidding to a stop beside me. “There’s someone at the door for you.”
I blinked, momentarily thrown off balance.
“Who?”
She flushed slightly, glancing over her shoulder.
“Alpha Derek,” she said.
My heart skipped a beat.
Derek.
Without another word, I strode down the hall toward the front entrance, the maid trailing after me nervously.
The heavy oak doors loomed ahead, sunlight slanting across the polished marble floor in bright, merciless beams.
I pulled the door open-
And there he was.
Standing on the front step in a dark shirt and jeans, casual but somehow still commanding, the morning light catching the edges of his hair and throwing it into gold.
1/2
+25 BONUS
For a moment, all I could do was feel it.
The flare.
The pull.
The wild, impossible gravity that slammed into my chest like a physical force.
I thought it would fade after a good night’s sleep. I thought the magic of the wedding, the nostalgia, the rush of old emotions would wash away in the light of day.
But it hadn’t.
If anything, it was stronger.
Brighter. Sharper.
Every cell in my body leaned toward him instinctively.
Derek, for his part, stood politely back, hands loose at his sides, waiting.
But I saw the way his nostrils flared slightly, the way his fingers twitched once–small betrayals of how hard he was fighting the same war inside himself.
I cleared my throat, struggling for composure.
“Derek,” I said, a little breathless. “Were you here to pick up Aiden I didn’t remember setting any—”
“No,” he cut me off gently. His voice was low and careful, like he didn’t trust it to stay even otherwise.
He shifted his weight slightly, those golden eyes locking onto mine with an intensity that sent a fresh wave of heat rushing under my skin.
“I have an odd request,” he said.
I tilted my head, trying to gather my thoughts through the haze of bond–induced static clouding my brain.
“What kind of request?”
Derek stepped forward one pace, close enough that I could smell the clean, wild scent of him.
“I think you and I should go speak to the Moonstone Priestess.”
I blinked.
Of all the things I expected him to say, that wasn’t even on the list
“About last night?”
He smiled faintly, but it didn’t reach his eyes.
‘May I come in?”
I hesitated for half a second longer than necessary, but then stepped aside, gesturing him into the house.
The moment he crossed the threshold, the bond between us buzzed brighter, hungrier, like a taut string plucked by unseen fingers.
I swallowed hard and started walking, leading him down the long, cool halls toward the back gardens where the path to the Moonstone Sanctuary began.
C
