Chapter 6 No.6

Delilah POV

I followed Carter down the corridor, my heels clicking a frantic rhythm against the marble floor that echoed the hammering of my heart. I expected him to lead me to the main library as he had said.

Instead, he took a sharp left toward the servants' wing.

"Carter, the library is-"

He didn't answer. He pushed open a heavy oak door, and the roar of the storm swallowed my words.

Wind and rain lashed at us instantly. We were in a secluded stone portico on the west side of the estate, a place shadowed by ancient ivy and hidden from the main driveway. The temperature plummeted, the humid warmth of the house replaced by a biting chill that soaked through my silk dress in seconds.

"Why are we here?" I shouted over the thunder, wrapping my arms around myself.

Carter turned on me. In the gloom, his eyes were molten silver, glowing with a predatory luminescence. He stepped closer, his large frame shielding me from the wind but trapping me in his heat.

"Because inside that house, you are Jaden's wife," he growled, his voice vibrating in my chest. "Out here, the truth of your situation is clear."

"I didn't know who you were!" The lie tasted like ash. "I was disoriented. It was a mistake."

"A mistake?" He laughed, a dark, humorless sound. "Your wolf didn't think it was a mistake. She called to me then, and she is calling to me now."

He was right. My inner wolf was pacing excitedly, ignoring the cold, desperate to acknowledge him.

Before I could deny it, he stripped off his suit jacket. The movement was fluid, powerful. He draped the heavy wool over my shoulders, pulling the lapels together. The scent of him-sandalwood, rain, and pure, unadulterated Alpha-enveloped me, drowning out the smell of the storm. It felt like a heavy blanket, a shield against the biting wind.

"Jaden is waiting for me," I whispered, my resolve crumbling.

"Jaden?" Carter's voice was laced with contempt as he stepped closer. "The coward who can't even control his own secrets? Don't use him as a shield, Delilah. He is no protection at all."

My breath hitched. He knew. He knew everything, and he was using it to strip me bare.

He grabbed my elbow, his grip firm, and marched me toward a black beast of a vehicle idling in the shadows-a customized Range Rover Sentinel. He opened the passenger door.

The interior was a vault of silence and expensive leather. The storm was instantly muted. Carter slid into the driver's seat, the sudden confinement making the air thick with tension. The dashboard lights cast his sharp profile in a ghostly blue glow.

"I can give you something," I blurted out, my hands trembling in my lap. "To make this right."

Carter turned slowly. He reached into his pocket and placed something onto my lap.

It was a diamond stud earring. My earring. The one I had lost in the hotel room that night.

"I don't want anything from you," he said softly.

With a deliberate, steady movement, he reached for my left hand. I watched, breathless, as he slid the sapphire ring from my finger. It wasn't a question, but a statement. The metal was cold as it came free, and in that moment, I felt a shocking, weightless sense of release. It was as if a chain I hadn't realized was choking me had just been severed.

I breathed out softly, a sound of pure relief lost in the quiet car.

The ring was in his hand now. My finger felt strangely light, liberated.

Carter held the sapphire up to the dim light, inspecting it with a look of disdain before slipping it into his breast pocket. Then, he leaned across the center console. His face was inches from mine. The air in the car grew heavy, charged with a power that made my ears pop.

His voice was low, speaking a hard truth I had been afraid to admit to myself.

"You will leave him," he said.

The words were a reflection of my own silent wish for freedom. My inner self, so long suppressed, rose up in fierce agreement.

"Get out," he said, his voice returning to normal, cold and dismissive.

The locks clicked open.

I stumbled out of the car, my legs feeling like jelly. The rain instantly soaked me again, but the phantom heat of his words burned deeper than the cold. I stood on the gravel, clutching his jacket around me, staring at the empty space on my finger where my marriage used to be.

The Range Rover's engine growled, and without a backward glance, the Alpha King drove into the night, taking my ring and my free will with him.