CHAPTER 53: CENTER OF THE BARGAIN

My eyes widened.

What did he just say?

The world seemed to tilt beneath me.

For a moment, I wondered if I’d imagined it, if the howling wind had twisted his words into a cruel trick of sound. But no. His lips had formed the sentence clearly.

I wanted to let out a hysterical laugh.

Rion Morrigan had just agreed to hand me over.

I couldn’t even speak. My mouth opened, but no words came.

The shock hollowed me out, stealing my breath until I felt like I might choke on the frozen air.

The words of an Alpha from the Undercity weren’t meant to be taken seriously, I knew that.

Their world was built on deception, on bargains twisted with loopholes, on promises broken before they were even finished being spoken. I had known this from the start. I had told myself over and over not to believe him.

And yet, when he said he wanted a mate before the year’s end, when he told me it was a vow to honor his dead mother, I had thought there was more to it. That somewhere beneath the lies, he had a real reason. A secret motive. Something deeper that somehow tethered him to me.

But this?

He wasn’t revealing hidden motives. He was discarding me.

Scoffing, I forced a bitter laugh past the lump in my throat.

So that was it? He was trading me for a dusty old relic he wasn’t even sure worked?

Like I was property. Like I belonged to him to sell, to barter, to throw away.

Damn him.

"Ha!" Arjan’s laugh rang through the frozen plain, raw and booming. His scarred face twisted grotesquely with amusement. "I didn’t think you’d agree so easily, old friend!"

I turned on Rion, fury shaking the shock from my bones. My glare burned into him, my body trembling with rage I could barely contain.

And him? He only cocked his head, eyes gleaming, one brow lifting as if I were amusing him instead of damning him.

His lips curved, and then he spoke, his words slow, like coaxing a child.

"I know you don’t want to live here in the Undercity. And I know you had no intention of accepting my proposal." His mouth twitched, faint mockery dancing at the edges. "Did you really think I wouldn’t see through you? That I’d play the fool?"

"So you’re sending me back to Finn?" I spat, my voice tight, bitter with rage.

My lips curled as my throat burned. My eyes stung, wet with angry tears I refused to let fall. I blinked hard, forcing them back. I would not let him see me break.

"Tell me, would that make your trip to Levian pack a little useless?"

Rion tilted his head, studying me with that eerie calm, the kind of calm that could drive a person to madness.

"You don’t want to stay with me. And I can’t force you, can I?" His tone was soft, falsely gentle, a mockery of sympathy. "A sane man wouldn’t do that to a lady."

A harsh laugh tore from my lips. "You don’t look sane to me."

His grin spread, sharp and cruel. "But I do look handsome."

The audacity of him. Even now, with wolves waiting below, he dared to jest.

"Fuck you," I hissed, acid dripping on the word.

"You missed your chance," he murmured smoothly, his smile darkening.

Heat surged in my face—not shame, not even humiliation, but rage so blistering it made my skin burn.

"You arrogant, self-absorbed bastard."

He didn’t flinch. Didn’t defend. He simply grinned wider, as though my fury was a game he was winning.

Then, without another word, he turned his gaze back toward the snowy plains where Arjan and his pack waited, dismissing me as though I were nothing.

I wanted to tear into him. To claw that smug expression from his face. To scream until the sound split the sky. But the scream tangled in my throat.

I took a step back. My legs wobbled, but I forced them steady. My instinct screamed at me to run, even if it meant throwing myself into the wasteland beyond.

But before I could move, a hand clamped around my elbow.

Ares’s hands.

His grip was iron, tight but it didn’t hurt. He smirked, and then his expression turned serious.

The warmth he had shown me the night before, the faint thread of friendlieness, was gone. He stood now as a warrior, nothing more, a weapon forged for his Alpha.

He didn’t need words. His smirk said enough. You’re not going anywhere.

My stomach sank.

I regretted everything.

I regretted not letting the cliff claim me when I fell days ago. I regretted clawing my way back to life when fate seemed determined to crush me at every turn.

Why? Why was I being shoved into corner after corner, cage after cage?

What had I done to deserve the Moon Goddess’s wrath?

Ares’s grip tightened, guiding me forward. My feet scraped against the stone floor, legs heavy as lead.

The tower’s stairwell yawned before us, spiraling downward, swallowing us into shadow.

The descent felt endless. The walls dripped with condensation, cold seeping into my bones. My heart hammered against my ribs, each beat screaming in protest, as if begging me to fight, to resist, even as my body was dragged deeper into inevitability.

By the time we reached the base of the tower, the wind tore at us once more, sharp and merciless.

And there they were.

Arjan and his wolves waited just meters away, golden eyes gleaming in the frozen light.

More than a dozen of them, veterans of violence, each one carrying the weight of blood on their claws. They stood restless, eager, shadows in the snow.

We stepped into the open together—Rion in front, Diaval silent at his side, Ares holding me steady like I was a prisoner being marched to trial.

No warriors followed us. No guards. Just the four of us against the pack.

It wasn’t carelessness. It was confidence. Rion didn’t think he needed anyone else.

And maybe he was right.

But I couldn’t stop the shiver that crawled down my spine.

Because no matter how strong he was, no matter how clever his games, I was the one standing at the center of this bargain. I was the one being traded like a coin.

And I had no idea if I would survive it.