Chapter 480: Not coming back.

Aidan.

"Two minutes, Daniel!" Davian called out, keeping his voice smooth and untroubled as he leaned against the heavy wooden door.

Outside, the faint rustle of leather boots told me Daniel was shifting his weight, waiting like a vulture.

I turned back to face the room, catching Davian’s eye. The rage in his bloodshot eyes was identical to the fire burning in mine. The fake surrender was a farce. The restorative remedies were a lie. The bastard had been poisoning our mate under our very noses, and now he was standing in our hallway, waiting to lead us out into a killing field.

I looked at Damien and Adrein. Adrein was still leaning heavily against the bedpost, clutching his chest where his frayed bond thread was throbbing, but his eyes were sharp. Damien stood on the other side of the bed, holding a heavy fur blanket around Maria’s pale, limp frame.

I gestured toward the far side of the room—toward the heavy oak door that led directly into Damien’s adjoining personal quarters.

"Get her out," I whispered, my voice so low it barely carried across the rug. "Use the servant tunnel behind Damien’s wardrobe. It runs beneath the lower courtyard and drops out near the riverbank."

Damien’s jaw tightened as he carefully scooped Maria into his broad arms, lifting her off the mattress. She looked so tiny against his chest, her head slumping uselessly against his shoulder. "What about you two?" Damien muttered, his dark eyes flashing with hesitation.

"Davian and I will handle our guest," I replied, pulling my hunting knife from its leather sheath and testing its weight. "We’ll draw Daniel’s attention to this room and hold the upper floor. Once you’re in the tunnel, seal the stone latch behind you. Take her straight toward the outer woods and do not stop until you’re clear of the wards."

Adrein dragged himself up, stepping in front of Damien to act as his shield. He looked over at me, his breath coming in ragged gasps. "Don’t let him walk out of this house alive, Aidan."

"He won’t," Davian growled softly, stepping up beside me near the main door. He drew his own long blade, the steel catching the dim amber candlelight. "Go. Now."

Damien didn’t waste another second. He carried Maria swiftly into his private quarters, Adrien right on his heels. I heard the quiet click of the adjoining door locking from the inside, followed a moment later by the heavy, grinding scrape of the hidden stone panel sliding open in the wall behind his wardrobe.

They were in the tunnel.

I took a deep, steadying breath, feeling the raw, savage heat of my wolf surging up to fill my veins. The wolfsbane in Maria’s system might have suppressed her, but in me, the sudden clarity of Daniel’s betrayal had burned away every last trace of doubt.

"Aidan?" Daniel’s voice called again through the oak door, a fraction of his smooth politeness slipping to reveal a tight, impatient edge. "Is there a problem... in there? We need to move."

Davian looked at me and grinned—a dark, lethal smirk devoid of any warmth. He positioned himself flush against the wall right beside the door hinge, completely out of sight from the hallway. I stepped directly in front of the latch, unbuckling the iron deadbolt with a slow, deliberate clatter.

"No problem at all, Daniel," I said loudly, my voice carrying clearly through the other side of the heavy door. I wrapped my fingers firmly around the cold iron handle and tightened my grip. "Just making sure we’re entirely prepared."

For a brief moment, I held the handle in place, my attention fixed on the silence beyond the door. Then I pulled it down sharply.

I yanked the door open.

The heavy door swung inward with a rough scrape, revealing the narrow corridor beyond. Daniel stood completely alone in the center of it, exactly where he seemed to expect us to find him.

He had a smug, expectant look plastered across his face. There was an almost irritating confidence in the way he carried himself, as though he already knew how this encounter would end. Under the yellow glow of the wall torches, he casually adjusted his silver cufflinks, straightening one and then the other with deliberate ease.

Then his eyes moved, and they swept past me, searching behind my shoulder. His expression remained confident for only a second longer, and then he saw it... the bed behind me was completely empty.

The smugness drained from his face so quickly that it was almost startling. His fingers froze against his cufflink, and the faint curve of his mouth disappeared entirely.

His eyes widened as he stared past me, seemingly unable to understand what he was seeing.

"Where is she?"

The question came out sharply, his voice suddenly stripped of its earlier confidence.

"Right here," I growled.

My voice dropped into a dangerous tone as I faced him fully.

Daniel’s eyes snapped back toward me.

Before he could even drop his hand to his belt, before his fingers could close around whatever he intended to reach for, I lunged forward.

I moved without hesitation, closing the distance between us in a single aggressive motion.

I grabbed him by the front of his fine velvet coat with both hands, using my full, explosive Alpha momentum to violently slam him backward against the opposite stone wall of the hallway. The force of the impact cracked the mortar behind his head, ringing out like a gunshot in the tight space.

Daniel gasped, his eyes wide with sudden, unadulterated shock as his diplomatic mask shattered into pieces. He clawed frantically at my wrists, his teeth bared in a desperate sneer. "Aidan, you fool! What are you doing?!"

Davian stepped out of the room, blocking the hallway exit and cutting off any chance Daniel had of running toward the stairs.

"Refined wolfsbane, Daniel?" I snarled into his face, my eyes glowing a furious, blinding gold as my Alpha aura flared out, crushing the air right out of his lungs. "Did you really think we wouldn’t feel it on her skin? Did you really think we were going to walk out into your little trap like blind cattle?!"

Realization hit him like a physical blow. The color drained completely from Daniel’s face. He stopped clawing at my wrists and whipped his hand down toward his inner coat pocket, trying to pull a concealed silver dagger from his vest.

"You’re too late!" Daniel gasped out, a bitter, desperate laugh choking in his throat. "The perimeter is already sealed! You’re all going to die in this house!"

"Maybe," I whispered coldly. "But you won’t be around to see it."

I released my grip on his lapels, shifted my weight, and drove my right fist straight into the side of his skull with every ounce of raw Alpha power left in my body.

CRACK.

The sound of flesh and bone impacting his temple echoed violently down the stone hallway. Daniel’s head whipped hard to the side, his eyes instantly rolling up into his head. The silver dagger slipped uselessly from his limp fingers, clattering against the floorboards as his knees completely buckled beneath him.

He crumpled into a lifeless, unconscious heap at my feet, his face bleeding against the cold floor.

Davian stepped forward, his boots scraping against the floor as he approached Daniel’s limp body. Without hesitation, he swung his leg and kicked the silver dagger lying nearby, sending it skidding violently across the hallway. The blade scraped against the hard floor before disappearing far down the corridor, safely out of Daniel’s reach.

Davian then lowered his gaze to Daniel.

Daniel remained motionless, his body sprawled awkwardly across the floor. His breathing was heavy and uneven, each shallow breath barely moving his chest. Davian’s own chest rose and fell rapidly, and his hands remained tightly clenched into fists at his sides. His knuckles were pale from the force of his grip as he slowly lifted his eyes toward me.

"Is he dead?" Davian rasped out.

His voice was rough and strained, as though even speaking required an effort. He dragged the back of one hand across his forehead, wiping away the sweat that had gathered there, then glanced down at Daniel again.

I didn’t answer immediately.

Instead, I stepped closer and nudged Daniel’s shoulder with the toe of my boot. His body shifted slightly beneath the pressure, but he made no attempt to move. I watched him carefully, my attention settling on the faint rise and fall of his chest.

He was still breathing.

I crouched slightly, checking the pulse beneath his jaw. It was there, faint and shallow, barely more than a weak flutter against my fingers.

"Not yet," I said, as my voice was cold, stripped of every trace of emotion. I straightened slowly, looking down at him. "We keep him alive just long enough to make him regret ever stepping foot into our territory."

Davian spat onto the floor beside Daniel, his expression hardening. He turned his head toward the lower courtyard, listening intently.

"Damien and Adrein should be at the tunnel exit by now."

"Good," I replied, as I looked down the quiet hallway toward the stairs, my eyes narrowing as the silence stretched around us. "Let’s secure this wing before his men realize he’s not coming back down."