Chapter 161: Bargain
"That is the first time I have ever heard such a request from her, my soul," his voice softened subtly, wrapping around me in heavy, possessive warmth that sent shivers coursing over my skin. "If she opens her mouth again, throw her out. I’ll be home soon, and we’ll resolve everything."
That term of endearment—"my soul"—had managed to soothe the storm raging inside me, coaxing the waves of panic to recede slightly. But deep down, beneath my ribs, a sticky anxiety still writhed, leaving a dull, persistent ache in its wake.
In a desperate bid to distract myself and escape my own spiral, I headed to Matthias’s room. Closing the door behind me, I joined my son on the plush carpet. We spent hours building with his toy blocks until he unexpectedly asked me to tell him the story of the Little Mermaid.
The projector for his new bedroom hadn’t been delivered yet, so I crawled under the covers and lay down beside him, pulling his warm little body close. Whispering the fairy tale into the quiet room while breathing in the scent of his baby shampoo mixed with his subtle, sweet pup scent, I didn’t even realize the moment I plunged into a heavy, suffocating darkness.
A sudden jolt.
I sat up in bed, gasping for air as if breaking through the surface of deep water. My heart hammered wildly in my throat. Throwing off the blanket, I reached out to my side, only for my fingers to meet cold, empty sheets.
Matthias was gone.
"Matthias?" I called out raspily, scanning the dim room.
Only the heavy, dead silence of the massive mansion answered me. My gaze darted to the digital clock on the nightstand, its glowing red numbers piercing the dark:
23:00
The digits struck my mind like a searing whip. Night. Already night.
Leaping out of bed, I bolted into the hallway, driven forward by a surge of primal maternal terror. Where could he possibly have gone at this hour?!
Sprinting through the dimly lit corridors, I caught a sliver of light out of the corner of my eye. The living room door was standing ajar. I lunged forward, ready to burst inside to search for my son, but froze dead in my tracks—as though a bucket of ice water had been dumped over my head, pinning my feet to the hardwood floor.
In the next instant, the paralysis mutated into a toxic cocktail of emotions so intense I couldn’t utter a sound. I just stood there, unable to draw a single breath, feeling as though my spine had been driven through with iron spikes.
"You need to understand that I no longer require your services," Magnus’s voice echoed from the room, entirely devoid of emotion.
"How can you be like this, Magnus..." Madam Arden sobbed, her voice laced with such raw desperation that the surrounding air seemed to crackle.
"I offered to bear your child! I was ready to undergo suppression therapy for you! Ready to give up on finding my true mate... And yet you brought some nameless stray into your house! Tell me you’ll throw her out... I’ll accept this child! I’ll raise him as my own—I swear no one will ever suspect he isn’t ours...!"
Her words drilled into my brain like rusted screws. The suffocating, heavy silence that followed made it physically impossible to breathe.
It hurt. An unbearable, agonizing ache.
So there had been something between them—if this female had been willing to break herself and abandon her destined bond for him. What "services" was he talking about? This was a heavily guarded, private pack estate; there was nothing about the grounds that justified calling it "landscaping services" and paying her for years.
"You want to be my wife and raise my child?"
The question, uttered in an unnervingly flat, icy tone, sounded like a final sentence. Cold prickles ran down my spine, and dark spots danced across my vision.
Was it all a lie? Was history about to repeat itself? Right now, after everything we had survived? Was he weighing the options? Calculating her offer? She was a high-born she-wolf from a powerful family, willing to do anything. I had no powerful pack, no standing to offer him.
Was he about to cast me aside? Again?
"Yes!" the blonde gasped fervently. I heard the rustle of fabric as she leaned forward. "I’m ready to bear you more children! As many as you want! We can unite the strength of our packs and form an unbreakable alliance! I know you are powerful and that simple Omega is no match for you, but I have an entire pack behind me. My father would be thrilled with our union..."
"Suppose so," Magnus drawled with the calculating, ruthless grip of a pack leader negotiating a transaction. "And what do you propose we do with Jane?"
I squeezed my eyes shut, biting down hard on my lower lip to keep from screaming. He was bargaining. My mate was debating my fate as though I didn’t even exist.
"Pay her off," Madam Arden offered instantly, her voice gathering strength and hardening into steel and contempt. "Give her enough money to make her disappear from the city forever."
"And if she doesn’t agree?" That same flat, lifeless baritone.
"Then she needs to be eliminated, Magnus. It’s no trouble at all. I’ll arrange everything myself," raw bloodlust seeped through her words. "We’ll take her off the estate and hand her over to people who know how to dispose of trash properly. No one will ever be able to prove a thing. She’s nobody... We’ll get rid of her quietly, and no one will come looking. I’ll make sure there are no complications—for us."
Clamping my hands over my mouth, I choked on a ragged gasp. My lungs burned like fire, and my vision blurred. She had just offered to murder me. Coldly, as if discussing a stray, rabid dog. And Magnus was listening to it all. Listening without interrupting.
In the next second, however, his voice tore through the quiet of the hallway. Loud. Sharp. Cutting right through the air.
"You may enter, Sayan. Jane, you step inside, too."