Chapter 164
Lucian’s POV
"You don’t get it, Alina. He only did that for his own selfish reasons. He never truly would have helped me; instead, he would rather watch me die," I said, my tone stern.
"Lucian, why don’t you understand that I am on your side?" she pleaded, looking up at me. "Everyone deserves a redemption arc, and that includes me. I might not have been the best person so far, but I am doing everything I can so I can gain your trust. I know it will take time, but—"
"Forget it. I am never trusting you again, Davon. Fool me once, but never again. Now get the hell out of my house," I snapped, the anger boiling over in my voice as I glared at him.
Davon sighed, realizing there was no convincing me. "Alina, I will be leaving now," he said quietly. He turned on his heel and left the house.
Once the door clicked shut, I turned my full attention back to Alina.
"You can’t bring this man over here again," I said, softening my voice to a calm, gentle tone as I walked closer to her. "I get it. You have a good heart, and you always try to see the best in others. You also gave me an opportunity when I didn’t deserve it. But believe me sincerely when I say Davon is bad news. I can’t emphasize it enough—don’t be anywhere around him."
"I might not understand everything, but it’s fine. I won’t let him in here again," she said softly, looking down. "I just wanted to be grateful because he helped save you."
I reached out, gently placing my hand against her warm cheek, tilting her face up to meet my gaze. "And you have thanked him already for that. That’s already more than enough," I said, a genuine smile breaking across my face. "Now come with me. You need to rest. You are pregnant with my child."
I couldn’t help the massive smile that took over my face. Honestly, I still couldn’t believe this was truly happening.
Alina nodded, and we both walked into the bedroom. I helped her settle onto the bed as she lay down. Sitting at the edge of the mattress, I reached for her feet and gently began to massage them.
"You know, I have thought about a lot of names for our baby," I said, looking at her warmly. "What do you think about Neon?" I added. "For a baby girl. It would match perfectly with Leo."
She looked at me, a soft glint in her eyes. "You want a girl?"
"Yes. I want her to look exactly like you," I said.
A beautiful smile spread across her face, making my chest tighten with affection.
"But Alina... before the baby comes, I truly want to marry you," I continued, my voice growing earnest. "I know you said you don’t want to remarry, but I hope you can reconsider that option and—"
I stopped mid-sentence at the sudden, sharp knock on the bedroom door.
"I will go check who it is," I said, squeezing her hand before standing up.
I walked to the door and pulled it open. Boca was standing in the hallway. The tense, rigid expression on his face screamed absolute trouble. I gave him a silent nod, understanding the unspoken warning immediately.
"Alina, I will be back," I called out to her before stepping into the hallway and closing the door behind me.
"What is the situation?" I asked Boca as we both hurried down the hallway toward my study.
"We are being banned from everything. Aiden is making sure that food supplies and everything else are out of reach for the rogues. We are enemy number one," Boca said, his voice tense.
"That’s ridiculous. Why would he do that?" I said, sitting down at my desk and rubbing my temples.
"Apparently, there are more killings happening, and they are all being directed to us," he said.
"We didn’t fucking do anything!" I snapped, irritation thick in my tone. "As a matter of fact, we stopped hunting a long time ago."
"That doesn’t change what is happening on the streets. But... I suspect this is Tanjiro’s doing," he said.
"What? I thought he operated in a faraway clan," I said, confusion temporarily overriding my anger.
"Yes. Which means him doing this now means someone is paying him. Someone is paying him to do this and probably pin it on us," Boca explained.
"And by someone, you mean Aiden, right?" I growled, my claws scraping against the wood of my desk.
"Tanjiro hates Aiden more than anything you can imagine. I don’t think Aiden has the balls to go meet him," Boca countered.
"If not him, then who?" I asked, curiosity and frustration building inside me.
"I have no idea. But we need to act fast, Alpha. Our businesses will be shut down as well, and if this keeps up, they might start killing us off one after the other."
"I won’t let that happen," I said, standing up. The fire of determination burned hot in my chest. "Whoever is doing this has to be stopped. Don’t let anyone else know about this. We both go down by dawn. We’ll go see who those rogues actually are, okay?"
Boca nodded grimly. "Understood, Alpha."
After hours passed, the cover of darkness finally came. Boca and I slipped away into the deep woods. We carefully masked our scents with herbs so no one could track us, moving like shadows through the dense trees.
As we drew closer to a clearing, we heard the faint murmur of voices. We dropped low behind a thick patch of bushes, peering through the leaves.
A group of people had gathered in the clearing.
"Their faces are covered," Boca whispered, his eyes scanning the crowd. "This will be harder to identify them if their masks stay on." He paused, tilting his head. "Can you listen to what they’re saying?"
I strained my ears, focusing all my wolf senses on the group, but the words were completely muffled and distorted.
"No, I can’t," I responded.
It was strange. Normally, my hearing was sharp enough to pick up a whisper from this distance. They must have been using some kind of dampening magic or device.
Just then, the rustling of leaves echoed from the opposite side of the clearing. Someone else was approaching.
We watched in silence as a figure stepped into the center of the group. It was a woman. Unlike the others, her face wasn’t covered. She wore no mask, her features fully exposed under the faint moonlight.
I squinted my eyes, forcing my vision to lock onto her face. The moment her features came into focus, my eyes widened in shock.
Ilya!
What the hell is she doing here?
I watched, frozen, as she pulled a dark vial from her coat and handed the substance over to one of the masked men.
"That’s Ilya," Boca whispered, his voice barely a breath against the wind. "What is she doing here?"
"I have no idea. We should go closer," I muttered, my heart hammering against my ribs.
We stayed low, creeping through the thick underbrush, placing our steps with absolute precision to avoid snapping a single twig. The closer we got, the more the dampening barrier weakened, allowing her sharp, cold voice to cut through the silence of the woods.
"You have a better shot with this. No one will be able to stand this," Ilya boasted, a sinister, power-hungry smile stretching across her face. "With the mixture of an Alpha’s blood, I can finally get the power that I truly deserve, and no one is ever stopping me."
Her words hit me like a physical blow, causing my eyes to widen in absolute shock.
What the hell?
An Alpha’s blood? Whose blood was she talking about? And how did she manage to get her hands on it?
Something was deeply, incredibly wrong.
As I watched, the liquid inside the vial began to emit a sickly, pulsing red glow. The air in the clearing grew heavy, thick with the suffocating scent of dark magic and ozone. One of the masked men was shoved forward into the center of the circle. He didn’t fight back—he just stood there, trembling, as Ilya chanted a low, guttural incantation.
Before my eyes, the glowing substance seemed to violently pull the very life force right out of him. The man let out a choked, silent scream, his body withering and collapsing onto the dirt like a dry leaf as his life was stolen to fuel whatever sick ritual she was performing.
"Lucian, I think we should go," Boca whispered, his voice laced with rare, genuine panic. He looked at the glowing vial, then at the dead man on the ground. "Let’s go!"
Before I could even protest, Boca grabbed my arm, forcibly pulling me backward.
In our haste to retreat, his foot caught on a thick root, and my shoulder slammed hard into a low-hanging branch. A loud, sharp crack echoed through the silent, damp woods.
The chanting stopped instantly.
"Who is there!" Ilya’s voice shrieked, whipping her head toward our exact direction.
Fuck!