Chapter 304: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

Vivian’s POV

I pushed my sudden fear down into the dark and walked slowly toward him, my steps cautious and deliberate on the floorboards. I sat down beside him on the edge of the bed, the mattress dipping gently beneath our combined weight, but he still did not turn his head to look at me.

"What is going on, my love?" I asked quietly, my voice coming out barely louder than the frantic pounding in my chest.

He finally spoke into the heavy darkness, and his voice sent a cold shiver sliding straight down my spine. It was distant, cold, and entirely detached. It did not sound like my male at all.

"Vivian?"

That single word, spoken with such icy distance, made my stomach instantly drop into a bottomless pit.

"Yes?" I replied softly, trying my absolute best to keep the nervous tremor out of my voice. I had zero idea what he was about to say next, but I possessed a strong gut feeling that I was not going to like it one bit.

He turned his body slightly toward me, though still not enough to actually meet my searching gaze.

"How much do you truly trust Joshua?"

The sudden question caught me completely off guard, but not at all in the specific way I had been fearing. It was not one of the terrifying, soul-crushing relationship statements I had desperately imagined he might say to me in the dark. It was not the absolute worst thing... but it certainly was not good news either.

I blinked in the dim room, my thoughts racing to keep up. Out of all the heavy things he could have asked me right now... why this specific question about his brother?

I swallowed hard past the knot in my throat and shifted slightly on the bed to face him more directly. "Do you want my honest answer to that?" I asked, already knowing in my heart that he would demand nothing less than absolute truth from his mate.

I could easily lie to him. Tell him whatever sweet words he wanted to hear right now. Pretend to trust his long-lost brother without a single shred of doubt for the sake of peace. But that was simply not who Zahliver was at his core. And that definitely was not what our relationship was built on.

Even now, sitting beside him as cold and unreadable as he looked, I could feel it through our bond this was not just idle curiosity on his part. This was a dark storm he had been desperately trying to ignore for days. A heavy decision he had either already made, or was just about to make, that he was not at all at peace with in his soul.

He still had not looked at my face, but his silence stretched long enough through the quiet room for me to know he was waiting patiently for my full response.

"Honestly," he said at last, his tone flat.

I let out a soft sigh and leaned my head gently against his broad arm. The physical contact was small, but I felt the instant reaction his tense body relaxed just a tiny bit beneath my weight, barely noticeable on the surface, but more than enough for me to feel. Enough to know he desperately needed me to anchor him right now.

My rapid thoughts drifted back to the very first time I had set eyes on Joshua. The creepy way his cold skin had felt like solid ice, his hollow presence like a dangerous void in the room. I clearly remembered his sudden yellow eyes too far too sharp, far too wrong for a normal wolf. The strange way he spoke like he possessed ancient knowledge he had no business knowing. That forced calmness surrounding him that did not feel real at all, like a deadly snake coiled tightly beneath a calm surface.

But I also vividly remembered the dark night of his terrible nightmare. The broken, fragile pieces he tried so endlessly hard to hide from his Alpha. The cruel way the whole world had moved on without him, and how thoroughly lost he must have felt trying to catch up to our reality. He was not simple. He was definitely not safe.

"Your brother is weird," I stated bluntly, breaking the heavy silence. "And I do not mean quirky or ’he collects old coins’ kind of weird. I mean the very specific ’I am watching your every move because if you screw up, I will gladly stab you in the back because you left me for dead’ kind of weird."

I paused for a second, my heart thudding against my ribs. "No offense intended to your bloodline, of course. I am sure deep down way, way deep down beneath all those dark layers he could possibly be a decent guy somewhere. But do I personally trust him?" I shook my head slowly in the dim light. "Not even a little bit."

The heavy silence that followed my blunt words was thick enough to choke a wolf. I braced my body, fully expecting him to jump up off the bed, fiercely defend Joshua, or be deeply angry with me for failing to trust his flesh and blood.

But what I got from him instead... was a low, humorless, hollow laugh that echoed off the quiet walls.

And somehow, hearing that empty laugh was so much worse than a furious outburst.

The exact second he turned his face fully toward me, I instinctively lifted my head, my breath catching in my throat. His eyes those searing, electric blue eyes glowed with an unnatural, predatory light in the dim room, fixing me tightly in place like prey caught under the gaze of a lethal hunter. My entire body tensed up as his large hand came up, long fingers curling gently around my jawline, his grip entirely steady but not cruel in the slightest. He tilted my chin up slightly, examining my expression like I was something both priceless and extraordinarily fragile.

A dangerous smile ghosted across his lips hollow, dark, and utterly humorless, never coming anywhere close to touching the storm brewing behind his glowing eyes.

"It seems, my sweet mate," he murmured in a voice so smooth and honeyed it made my blood run cold, "that I have foolishly allowed a wolf dressed in sheep’s clothing to stay far too long under my own roof. Shall I butcher it again for us, my love?"

Every single nerve in my body went on high alert instantly. His lethal words were not directed at me, but they wrapped around my chest all the same cold, razor-sharp, and immensely dangerous. I could feel the crushing weight behind his words like a loaded, cocked weapon sitting directly on the table between us.

And just like that, my usually sharp, witty tongue completely failed me. No sarcastic comeback came to my rescue. No clever deflection escaped my lips. Just total silence.

Because this... this was the ruthless side of Zahliver that even the most seasoned, bloodthirsty pack warriors whispered about in genuine fear. The exact reason why he was so deeply respected across territories and feared across entire realms. The sole reason why the legendary title Lupus Deus was not just some empty fairytale passed around evening campfires.

Right now, sitting in the dark, I honestly did not know if he was merely testing my reaction... or seriously contemplating killing his own brother for the second time.

Before I could figure out how to safely respond to his question, he bent his head down, pressing a gentle kiss to one corner of my mouth, then the other, and finally capturing my lips in a fleeting, tender touch. My racing heart had not even caught up with the romantic gesture when he moved my body in one fluid, effortless motion. In a blink, he had placed me sitting directly between his long legs, my back resting snug against his broad chest, his powerful arms encircling my waist tightly like an impenetrable living fortress.

He leaned down, his warm breath grazing my skin as his mouth found the soft side of my neck, tracing gentle, warm kisses right beside his permanent mark. Then, pulling back just a fraction of an inch, he whispered into my ear with a quiet stillness that frightened me far more than outright rage ever could.

"No one will ever harm you. Not while I still draw breath in this body. And not even if I am forced to rise again from the grave. That, I swear to you."

They.

The unspoken word echoed through my mind like a blaring warning bell.

Who on earth was they?