Chapter 9
Lucas stood frozen in place, his gaze fixed on the charred remains. Time seemed to stop around him.
He became a statue amid the chaos–paramedics rushing about, police radios crackling, his friends sobbing in the background–all of it faded to white noise.
The rescue wolves approached with measured steps, their faces grim beneath rain–soaked helmets as they carried the stretcher toward him. With solemn reverence, they placed her body at his feet.
“Alpha Thornwood,” the guard said softly, “we’re deeply sorry for your loss.”
The rain intensified, fat droplets splattering against Lucas’s face, mingling with tears he didn’t realize he was shedding. His legs gave way as he collapsed to his knees beside her, his eyes burning red. Inside him, his wolf let out a heart–rending cry, thrashing wildly.
His outstretched hands trembled violently as he tried to reach for her. Once, twice, three times he attempted to gather her into his arms, but his muscles refused to cooperate. Finally, with gentle guidance from a paramedic, he cradled what remained of Aria against his chest.
Just hours ago–was it really only hours?-she had sat beside him in his car, her smile soft and knowing, eyes bright with something he now recognized as farewell as she’d confessed her love one final time.
Now she lay motionless in his embrace, the she–wolf who had once been so full of life reduced to this.
Her cold body temperature seeped through his rain–soaked clothes, sending ice straight to his core. The sensation was wrong–Aria had always been warm, always radiating heat like her own personal
sun.
“Aria,” he whispered, his voice breaking. “Stop playing games. Wake up, please? Just wake up.”
He called her name over and over, the desperate pleas of a drowning man, but she remained silent, as if she were simply ignoring him after a petty argument.
Lucas pressed his face against hers just as he used to do when he wanted her attention, not caring as blood and soot transferred from her ruined features to his skin.
Memories crashed over him in relentless waves.
16:39
Chapter 9
There were so many things he’d never told her. So many truths he’d hidden.
The first and most profound secret was that he’d knew she was his fated mate long before she knew
that.
Several years ago, during the Wolf Moon Festival at the pack borders, while everyone else had been half–drunk on moonlight and ceremonial wine, his attention had been completely captured by the graceful figure dancing around the bonfire–her fluid movements, flowing dress adorned with ancient pack symbols, and that radiant smile that seemed to challenge the flames themselves.
He remembered every detail with crystalline clarity–the way the firelight had caught in her hair, how her laughter had carried across the clearing when she’d playfully dodged an advancing male during the courtship dance.
Noticing his captivation, his beta had leaned over, whispering excitedly about the she–wolf.
“That’s Aria Collins. From the Silver Crescent Pack. Supposedly rejected the Alpha’s son in three packs. Every unmated male in the gathering is already tracking her scent.”
His beta had continued, but Lucas had stopped listening after her name, his wolf stirring beneath his skin.
Aria Collins.
That’s him mate’s name.
A musical name for a creature of such grace. He had silently repeated it several times, letting the syllables roll around in his mouth like fine wine.
He’d even whispered their names together once, testing how they sounded.
Aría Collins, Lucas Thornwood.
Perfect harmony.
But he’d quickly shaken the thought away, disgusted with himself.
No–Leila was the one he’d known since childhood, the one deserve to be his Luna, the only one he could imagine introducing to his pack.
Though Lucas had forced himself to stay committed to the idea of Leila, his wolf constantly betrayed
16:39
Hillionaire Aluba’s 99 Do
Caines
Chapter 9
him, seeking out Aria across pack territories.
He would catch her scent on the forest winds, notice her slipping through moonlit clearings with
friends, or find himself mesmerized watching her dance beneath the sacred falls.
Later, when Aria had begun pursuing him with that endearing determination, he’d found himself tempted to give in.
Sometimes, alone in his room, he’d imagine what it would be like to say yes, to let himself have what his wolf actually wanted rather than what he thought he should want.
But each time, he’d ruthlessly suppressed the impulse.
When Leila tearfully demanded he help her get revenge on Aria, his first instinct had been absolute
refusal..
“She’s not that kind of person,” he’d argued. “There must be some misunderstanding.”
He couldn’t reconcile the Aria he’d observed–who helped strangers carry groceries and volunteered at animal shelters–with someone capable of deliberate cruelty.
But when Leila heard his defense of Aria, she’d thrown a terrifying tantrum, even threatening to jump from a cliff.
He still cared for her then–or at least, he was accustomed to caring for her–and couldn’t bear the responsibility of her self–destruction.
So he agreed to the unthinkable.
He promised Leila he would accept Aria into his pack, execute 99 acts of revenge, and then publicly humiliate her before rejecting her and banishing her from the pack.
The first time he’d hurt Aria–telling her he’d gotten her a gift, then watching her search all night in a blizzard for something that didn’t exist–the guilt had been almost unbearable.
Seeing her return at dawn, feverish and shivering yet still smiling when she saw him, had made him physically ill.
But as the revenge schemes continued, he’d conditioned himself to grow numb to her pain. He’d convinced himself she deserved it, that her kindness was just an act, that hurting her was somehow justified.
Seeing Leila’s smile return had seemed worth the cost of his conscience.
16-20
Chapter 9
Until his friends drugged Aria and left her with those rogues without his permission.
For the first time in years, genuine protective fury had coursed through him, shocking even himself
with its intensity.
At the time, he’d rationalized that it was just pride–after all, she was still technically his mate.
If word got out that his mate had been assaulted, how would that reflect on him?
But deep down, he’d known it was more. The sight of those rogues touching her had awakened something primal and terrifying within him.
That incident had begun to crack the walls he’d built around his feelings, though he’d still refused to acknowledge what was happening.
Until today–when he’d left her in that cabin and she’d said she was looking forward to his “gift” with such heartbreaking sincerity.
Lucas had felt a panic unlike anything he’d experienced before.
Greater even than when Leila had threatened to leave him.
In that moment of hesitation before he closed the door, with her blind–folded and trusting, a thousand realizations had tried to surface.
According to their original plan, after this final revenge, he would publicly expose their relationship as a sham, forcing her to leave his pack before everyone they knew.
Their relationship would end completely, his debt to Leila paid in full.
If Aria showed genuine remorse, he might offer her some money as compensation for wasted
years.
But in that final moment before he’d closed the door, he’d decided he wouldn’t humiliate her after all.
He would still end things, still return to Leila as promised, but he would do it privately. He would offer Aria a generous settlement, and they would part ways with her dignity intact.
He’d told himself this change of heart was simple kindness, nothing more.
Yet when he saw the flames engulfing the cabin, and his phone remained silent with no panicked
calls from her…
16:39
Chapter 9
Lucas had been consumed by a realization that shattered everything he thought he knew about
himself:
‘I can’t lose her.‘
If she came out safely, he would give her anything–everything–she ever wanted.
Including the wish she’d once whispered against his chest on the full moon, thinking he was asleep–to become his Luna.
But all of that possibility, all of that future, depended on Aria being alive.
His unfocused eyes slowly settled on her lifeless face, the understanding crushing him with its weight.
He loved her. Had always loved her. And now she was gone.
Lucas had held Aria countless times–carelessly, thoughtlessly, taking her presence for granted–but never as tenderly as now, never with such reverence.
He carried her through the rain for what seemed like eternity, unwilling to release her to the waiting ambulance, unable to accept that their story had ended before he’d even recognized it had begun.
In that moment, cradling her broken body in his arms, Lucas understood with devastating clarity what he had truly done with his cruelty:
He had destroyed the only mate who had ever truly loved him, the only mate he had ever truly loved in return.
And no amount of wealth, power, or privilege could ever bring her back.
16-39
