Chapter 160: Collapse
It was just one sentence. But the second I uttered his name, the blonde whipped her head around, hurling a look at me so ferocious, so consumed with blind rage, that I felt the impact physically.
"How dare you call him by his first name?!" she spat, her pristine features contorting into a hideous scowl. "Who on earth are you to address him like that?!"
"Madam Arden... please, calm down..." the housekeeper pleaded softly, attempting in vain to soothe the enraged she-wolf.
It was far too late. Her naturally pleasant, velvety voice fractured into a deafening screech—so sharp I half-expected hairline fractures to web across the windowpanes. Talk about vocal power.
"If you don’t calm down, I will be forced to call security to have you escorted off the property," I said firmly, raising my voice to match her energy. Truthfully, I had no idea if I possessed the authority for such an ultimatum, but her shrieking could frighten my son at any moment—and I would never allow that. Never.
Yet the creeping realization that she and Magnus might share a history tore through my mind. I didn’t want to believe it, but her behavior spoke for itself. She carried far too much confidence in this house. She spoke his name with far too much intimacy... We had never discussed what happened during those five years apart. While I had worked here undercover, I heard that he never slept with the staff. But that didn’t mean he abstained from others...
"It’s you who will be thrown out of here, do you hear me?!" the blonde shrieked, slamming her palm down onto the countertop. "One word from me and you’ll be launched out of this house like a champagne cork! You’re a nobody, yet you have the audacity to call your Alpha by his first name while slumping around in casual clothes! Where is your uniform?! Servants are required to wear uniforms!"
A nervous shudder rippled through my body—not from fear, but from the sheer, wild absurdity of the scene. Clenching my fists, I rose slowly to my feet, towering over her.
"What makes you think I am a servant?" I asked, holding the gaze of the woman who, having lost all restraint, had leapt up from her barstool and was now aggressively encroaching on my space.
"Then what are you?! One of his whores?! You jumped into his bed and think you own the place?" she hissed, stepping almost flush against me.
Her wild, manic eyes scoured my person—searching frantically for a name tag—before dropping abruptly down to my hand.
To my ring.
The wedding band gleamed on my ring finger.
In the very next second, her mouth snapped shut with a loud click. Then it flew open again as she gasped for air like a fish flopped onto dry land. Lurching forward, she violently grabbed my wrist, digging her manicured nails into my skin to the point of pain, and stared at the ring with wild, unhinged eyes.
"What is this?" her voice cracked, degenerating into a raspy gasp. "Where did you get it?! Answer me!"
I tried to wrench my hand free from her agonizing grip, but at that exact moment, light footsteps echoed down the hallway.
"Mommy, who’s yelling so loud? Minny hid in his aquarium and won’t come out..."
Pushing the door open with a tiny hand, Matthias peeked into the kitchen. His pale head poked out from behind the doorframe, his eyelashes fluttering in confusion.
The enraged woman’s gaze snapped away from my arm and locked onto my son’s face—onto features that so blatantly, so undeniably mirrored one specific Alpha.
With a single look at the boy, Madam Arden reeled backward, looking as though she was about to collapse into a dead faint right on the spot.
***
Summoned by the head housekeeper, Alan gathered our uninvited guest—who had indeed fainted dead away—into his arms without a word and carried her into the living room, laying her across a wide leather sofa.
Casting a grim look over the woman’s pale face, the pack doctor dryly noted that he had no authority to touch the heiress of an outside pack without a direct order from the Alpha, recommending we simply wait for her to wake up.
Except she didn’t regain consciousness. Not after half an hour, nor after a full hour. She remained stretched out like an immobile, immaculate doll. The agonizing wait was driving me mad, pulling my nerves taut to the breaking point. Unable to stand it any longer, I pulled my phone from my pocket and dialed Magnus’s number with trembling fingers.
The call didn’t even ring twice. He answered almost instantaneously.
"Yes. What happened?" His baritone cut through the line like a drawn bowstring, as if he had been bracing every second for the worst to happen.
And in a way, it had. Just not for him—for me.
"Your..." I breathed out, desperately swallowing down the sharp, painful lump lodged in my throat, utterly at a loss for how to even refer to this woman. "Madam Arden arrived here and... How long have the two of you been together?"
The pause on the other end of the line lasted a mere second, but to me it felt like an eternity. The burning storm of emotions threatened to consume me entirely while I waited for his answer.
"We do not have, nor have we ever had, any kind of personal relationship, Jane," Magnus stated firmly, hammering home every word. "Nothing beyond strictly business matters. Leave her in the living room. I’ll be there soon."
"I see..." I answered softly, lowering my gaze to my intertwined fingers. Yet the gnawing anxiety eating away at me pushed me over the edge. "Magnus, she asked for a guest bedroom to be prepared for her. Right next to yours. Have you slept near each other often?"
The final question burst out far too sharply. I instantly regretted asking, but it was too late to back down now. He had claimed me as his mate, and I had every right to know what on earth to expect from her. My tone rose uncontrollably, fueled by the dark, suffocating indignation surging from deep within my chest, demanding answers.