Chapter 733:

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Adella’s POV

The roar of the shower echoing from the adjacent bathroom was the only sound tethering me to reality. I stood frozen in the dim light of the inner sanctuary, my hands trembling violently as I stared down at the First Era Mechanical Dire Wolf resting in its velvet box.

Deep within the microscopic brass gears, the tiny gold-wire letter A intertwined with a moonflower mocked me. It was my mark, the shameful signature of a ghost restorer who had repaired stolen artifacts for ruthless Rogue syndicates while trapped in Braydon Hyde’s mental cage. If the High Council or Eleanor “Gigi” Marshall scanned this toy, my illegal past would detonate, obliterating my unblemished authority as Luna Regent.

I couldn’t refuse Dallas’s gift to our son, and without my microscopic restoration tools, trying to crack open the sealed brass casing to scratch off the mark would permanently break the toy’s delicate mechanism. Dallas would instantly know I had tampered with his gift. I had no choice but to seal it away and pray.

My wolfless heart hammered against my ribs. I snapped the velvet box shut, my breathing shallow and erratic. I grabbed a heavy brown envelope stamped with the classified Vanguard seal, shoved the box inside, and dripped hot red wax over the flap to seal it shut.

I hurried to the heavy oak door and pulled it open. Alistair Croft stood guard in the freezing concrete corridor, his inner wolf maintaining absolute, lethal focus.

“Take this,” I whispered, shoving the envelope into his chest. “Put it on the fastest stealth jet to New York. Immediately.”

Alistair didn’t ask questions. He gave a crisp nod and vanished down the hall. I closed the door, leaning my forehead against the cold wood. The ticking time bomb was out of my hands, flying straight toward the center of our empire.

Eight hours later, the adrenaline had completely drained from my system. The stealth jet had crossed the Atlantic, and the time difference meant New York was just slipping into evening. I sat on the edge of the bed, staring blankly at the concrete wall, when my military-grade encrypted phone vibrated violently against the nightstand.

The caller ID flashed: Elara, my trusted manager at S&D Design in New York.

I snatched it up. “Elara?”

𝖳he 𝗯е𝘀𝘵 𝗿𝘦a𝖽𝗶n𝗴 𝖾x𝗉е𝘳𝘪𝗲𝘯𝗰𝖾 𝘰𝘯 𝘨a𝗹no𝘃el𝘴.с𝘰𝘮

“Adella,” Elara gasped, her voice cracking with pure, hyperventilating panic. “It’s a disaster. The package arrived at the Manhattan penthouse.”

Ice water flooded my veins. “Did Gigi intercept it?”

“No, Cassia did,” Elara choked out, her inner wolf practically trembling through the encrypted frequency. “She opened it in the massive living room. You know how much she loves puzzles. She took a heavy magnifying glass to the wood grain. She found the brass gears, Adella. She found the gold wire A and the moonflower.”

My stomach violently dropped.

“She called me ten minutes ago,” Elara continued, sobbing quietly. “She was so excited. She asked if it was your secret handiwork. I panicked. I lied and told her it was just a bizarre coincidence, and I strictly warned her not to dig into it or try to contact you in Europe.”

“Did she believe you?” I asked, though I already knew the terrifying answer.

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