Chapter b179 /b

    “Thomas ck,” I said quietly. “We need to talk.”

    He tried to run, of course. But Gabriel caught him before he made it three steps, shoving him back onto the bed so hard the frame cracked.

    “Please,” Thomas stammered, “I–I don’t know what you want, but I haven’t done anything-b” /b

    b“/bYou cut the brake lines on my parents‘ car.”

    The color drained from his face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

    Gabriel stepped forward, cracking his knuckles. “Would you like me to refresh his memory, Alpha?”

    “That won’t be necessaryb./b” I pulled up a chair and sat down, making myselffortable. “We already know what you did. The question is whether you’re going to tell us who paid you to do it, or whether my Beta is going to have to get creative.”

    Thomas’s throat bobbed.

    “Here’s what’s going to happen,” I continued. “You’re going to tell us everything. Who hired you, why they wanted my parents dead, and what else you know about their ns. And if you cooperate, I might let you live to see sunrise.”

    Thomas broke after another ten minutes of threats and Gabriel’s increasingly creative descriptions of what he nned to do to him. The confession came tumbling out all at once.

    “It was the Alpha of Stormhollow,” he sobbed. “He said the Ashw pack was getting too powerful. He paid me fifty thousand to make it look like an ident.”

    “What else?b” /b

    “That’s all, I swear. bI /bcut the brake lines and left.”

    “Bullshit.i” /iGabriel grabbed Thomas by the shirt and hauled him upright. “There’s more. What about the girl?”

    “What girl?”

    “E. The Alpha’s daughter. What were their ns for her?b” /b

    The mention of E made my wolf howl again. He didn’t believe that E was a pawn. But I pushed him down, no matter how much I wanted to agree with him. We didn’t know for certain yet.

    Which was precisely why Gabriel had cut our tryst in the kitchen short. Because for all I knew, I was about to make love to the enemy for a second time.

    +15 bBONUS /b

    And it would have been just as delicious as the most addictive drug known to man.

    Thomas’s eyes went wide with fresh terror. “bI/b… I overheard them talking once. The Alpha and his second wife. They said something about using their daughter to get close to the Ashw heir. That’s all I heard, I

    swear.”

    The words hit me like a punch to the gut. Everything Gabriel had been saying, every suspicion he’d raised

    about E, suddenly felt just a little more real.

    “When was thisb?/bb” /bI asked.

    “Years ago. Maybe six or seven years. She was just a teenager then.”

    Six or seven years ago. Right around the time our marriage had been arranged.

    Gabriel shot me a meaningful look. “That’s enough proof for me, Alpha. She’s been ying you from the beginning.”

    But I needed more. I needed concrete evidence, not just the overheard conversations of a guilty man desperate to save his own life.

    b“/bbNo/b,” I said. “Hearsay isn’t enough. Anyone could im they overheard something.”

    Gabriel’s jaw tightened. “Alexander-b” /b

    “I want solid proof,” bI /bcut him off. “Documentation. Recorded conversations. Something that can’t be dismissed as the desperate lies of a murderer.”

    I turned back to Thomas. “Here’s the deal. You’re going to go back to your life, and you’re going to find me real evidence that E is a spy. Letters, recordings, anything that proves she’s been knowingly working with her family against me. bIf /byou bring me that proof within the next month, I won’t kill you for what you did to my parents.”

    Thomas nodded frantically. “bY/b–Yes, yes, I can do that. I still have a key to the main house. I can find something.”

    “You’d better. Because if you don’tb, /bor if you try to run, or if you warn anyone about this conversation…” I leaned forward until we were inches apart. “I will hunt you down and make you pay for every day my parents didn’t get to live.”

    “I understandi,/ii” /iThomas whispered. b“I’ll /bfind proof. bI /bpromise.”

    I stood up, suddenly needing to get out of this cramped cottage. I didn’t know where I needed to go I just needed to bgo/b.

    Gabriel stayed behind to finish up with Thomas while I burst outside. The night air felt cool against my skin, but it did nothing to ease the pit that had opened up in my stomach. The taste of E’s kiss was still

    on my lips, the memory of how right it had felt to hold her still burning in my chest.

    +15 bBONUS /b

    But now, with Thomas’s words echoing in my head, everything felt tainted. Had it all been a lie? Every smile, every blush, every moment of vulnerabilityb? /b

    Had she truly been ying me like a fiddle all this time?