This chapter was all about shifting the Wolfe mansion from a palace into a prison. The glamour of Victor’s wedding morning is gone, replaced by paranoia, suspicion, and bloodthirst. Victor is humiliated, Robert shows us again just how ruthless he is, and Elena is torn apart, standing between two sons who are now officially at war. The tension here is meant to feel suffocating, every servant, every guard, every hallway watched like prey under a predator’s eye. From this point forward, no one in the Wolfe house is safe, and Ivy’s disappearance has ignited a storm that will not be contained. Brace yourself, because the hunt has only just begun.
The Wolfe mansion had been locked down for hours, the air so thick with tension it felt like smoke in the lungs. Victor stormed through the halls like a rabid dog, his orders echoing off marble and steel. Guards doubled, gates reinforced, every servant interrogated until their hands shook with fear.But Robert sat in his leather chair, silent. A predator at rest. Watching. Thinking.He had lived long enough to know rage was a luxury only the inexperienced indulged in. Weak men shouted; strong men calculated. And Robert Wolfe had never been weak.The knock at his study door came hesitant, almost apologetic. One of his men entered, phone in hand, bowing his head low as if approaching an altar.“Sir,” the man said carefully. “It’s Mercer.”Robert’s sharp eyes flicked to the phone. Daniel Mercer. A name few in his household even knew. A shadow asset. A relic of older, dirtier days. Useful precisely because he was invisible.Robert gestured with two fingers. The phone was placed into his h
The Wolfe estate no longer resembled a mansion. By the time the sun climbed above the horizon, it had been transformed into a fortress.Iron gates clanged shut, chains locking into place like prison bars. Guards in black tactical uniforms flooded the grounds, radios crackling with clipped orders. No car entered, no servant left. Every door was bolted, every window latched. The house, once alive with the bustle of florists and planners, now breathed fear.Victor Wolfe stood at the center of it all like a general preparing for war. His tailored suit was half buttoned, his hair still disheveled from the early hours, but his presence was electrified, dangerous.“She didn’t vanish into thin air,” he barked, pacing before the line of trembling staff gathered in the grand hall. “She had help. Someone in this house opened a door, carried a bag, left a post. Someone thinks they’re clever enough to betray me.” His eyes swept over them like a blade. “I will find them. And when I do..." He snappe
Victor Wolfe woke before the sun.The mansion was alive with preparations, every corridor humming with quiet urgency. Florists bustled in and out of the grand hall, arms full of roses so red they looked like spilled blood. Silver trays gleamed in the kitchens, servants darted between polished marble and towering champagne towers. Outside, the Wolfe estate gleamed like a crown awaiting its jewel.And that jewel, today, was Ivy Lancaster.His bride. His triumph. His possession.Victor stood before his mirror, shirt half-buttoned, admiring his reflection as though he could already see the headlines:Victor Wolfe, heir apparent. Victor Wolfe, husband. Victor Wolfe and Ivy Lancaster wedded.For years, his life had been measured against another man’s name, his brother’s name. Killian. Killian, the bastard, the shadow, the thief of every whisper of power before Victor could claim it. But today, the scales tipped. Today, in front of their father, their society, their world, Victor would prove
Killian’s hands trembled as he yanked at the last barrier between them, his eyes locked on Ivy as if daring her to stop him. She didn’t. She only arched her back, offering herself to him like she’d been waiting for this moment since the day they were torn apart.When he pushed inside her, it wasn’t gentle. It wasn’t slow. It was a desperate claiming, a furious need that had built for too long. Ivy cried out, her nails clawing at his back, and he buried his face in her neck, groaning as if her body was the only thing that could keep him alive.“Fuck, Ivy…” His voice was hoarse, ragged. “You feel… God, you feel like home.”She gasped at the stretch, at the way he filled her so completely, so perfectly. It was almost too much, but she welcomed the burn. She clung to him, legs tightening around his waist, pulling him deeper, needing every inch of him.“Killian…” she moaned, her voice broken, pleading.He started to move, hard, relentless, each thrust driving the air from her lungs, each sn
The safehouse was cloaked in silence, the kind that followed after storms. For hours, the only sound had been the dull hum of the city outside, distant and irrelevant compared to the weight of two people breathing in the same room again.Months of being locked away. Months of fighting Victor’s control.Months of replaying that night, the one mistake that had never left her blood. The one mistake that brought her to him. And now here he was, real, breathing, dangerous, hers.Her lips parted, but no words came out.Killian’s jaw flexed, his dark eyes dragging over her like he was starving. “Do you have any idea,” he muttered, voice rough, “what it did to me? Knowing you were in that house. Knowing I couldn’t touch you. Couldn’t get to you.”Her breath hitched. “And now?” she whispered.The corner of his mouth twitched, not quite a smile, more like a warning. “Now I’m letting you out of my sight again."Ivy’s pulse stuttered. “Killian..."She didn’t finish because he was already moving. H
The silence in the safe house was almost unreal. After months of being trapped in the suffocating halls of the Wolf mansion, Ivy stood frozen in the middle of the room, her breath catching in her chest. The world outside was still dangerous, yet for the first time in what felt like forever, the air she inhaled wasn’t poisoned with fear.Killian closed the door behind them, sliding the heavy lock into place. His movements were sharp, controlled, but Ivy could see the tremor in his hand. She knew it wasn’t weakness, it was restraint. The kind of restraint that only came from holding himself back too long.Her eyes roamed the room, dark wood floors, tall windows with curtains pulled shut, the faint scent of cedar and smoke lingering in the air. It wasn’t a home, not yet, but it was his. A place hidden, untouched by Victor, untouched by Robert, untouched by the past.And she was here. With him.Ivy swallowed hard, her voice barely above a whisper. “You really did it. You got me out.”Killi