Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 21 - Chapitre 30

“Nana’s smelling a rat,” Ragnar said, setting his empty shot glass down on the polished black marble counter. He sat perched on a high stool at a private bar located in the centre of town. Dray occupied the stool to his left, Kai to his right. The bartender, a silent older Lycan, moved silently, topping up their glasses. Dray tilted his head. “Do you think she knows the whole thing’s a setup?” Ragnar gave a small, careless shrug. “I don’t know what she knows. I just know she smells something off about the marriage. Otherwise, why would she suddenly decide to move into the main house for a few weeks? This is supposed to be my honeymoon phase.” Kai snorted into his drink. “Or maybe Brian’s been at her ear, dropping little poison pills about how fake the whole thing looks.” Ragnar turned his head just enough to pin Kai with a flat stare. “Do we not look convincing enough?” Kai let out a dry chuckle. “From where I’m sitting? Not even slightly, mate.” Ragnar’s eyes narrowed, b

“Right then, what have you got?” Kai asked the man standing before him.The investigator stepped forward, placing a thick manila envelope on the polished oak table. Kai flicked a glance towards Ragnar.“Report,” Ragnar said curtly, not turning from the window. His gaze remained fixed somewhere beyond the glass, distant and distracted by something else.The investigator cleared his throat. “I still couldn’t dig up a thing on the Queen’s mother, Your Grace. No one will speak her name. Every line of enquiry ends in the same wall. Nothing in the pack archives, nothing in the libraries, not a single written record that mentions her. It’s as though she never existed.”Ragnar didn’t move. He hadn’t eased up on the investigation into Lawrence Thornclaw and his first Luna since they returned from Moonfang. He couldn’t shake the feeling that the Moonfang Alpha was hiding something substantial. He had personally gone through every scrap of correspondence between Lawrence and his own father from

“No fucking way,” Ragnar growled the second he strode into his study. “A whole week alone with her? One of us will be dead before the second sunrise, and it won’t be me!”Dray, leaning against the edge of the desk with his arms folded, didn’t even flinch. “Calm down. Right now, it’s actually the smartest move. It’ll pull her eyes, and Brian’s away from your marriage for a little while and give everyone something new to chew on.”Ragnar stopped pacing long enough to pin his beta with a flat stare. “You say that as if you’ve forgotten Nana has Alistar stationed in Snow Crest like a bloody loyal bloodhound. She’ll have daily reports on what we ate for breakfast and how many times we breathed the same air. Of all the places for a honeymoon, why Snow Crest?” He dragged a hand over his face and let out a harsh breath. “I knew that trip of hers was suspicious. I fucking knew it.”Kai, who until that moment had been sprawled across the leather sofa, completely engrossed in his phone, let out

The Rolls-Royce eased to a smooth stop in front of the beach house. Suri’s breath hitched in her throat. She had expected something beautiful, but she hadn’t prepared herself for a beach house this stunning. She barely waited for the engine to die before she flung the door open and leapt out, breathing in the salty air, laced with the faint sweetness of sun-baked pine and wild jasmine.She spread her arms wide, tipped her head back, and spun in a slow, giddy circle, laughing as the wind snatched at her hair and sent it whipping across her cheeks. “Whoa!” she cried out, eyes squeezed shut against the brightness. “This place feels heavenly.”Behind her, the passenger door closed with a thud. She opened her eyes to find Ragnar leaning against the side of the car, ankles crossed, arms folded. He was watching her through squinted eyes, his expression a mask of unreadable intensity.“Are you that happy?” he asked dryly.She beamed at him, cheeks flushed from the wind and the sudden rush of

Ragnar stood alone in the study, a heavy tumbler of whiskey in his hand, staring out at the black wall of clouds that had swallowed the horizon. Lightning forked silently across the sky, illuminating the sea for split seconds before plunging everything back into darkness. Deep, bone-rattling thunder followed as he tipped the glass back in one long swallow and grunted as the next clap rolled through the house.It had been over an hour since Suri had left him, yet he still couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that she had saved him. He paced back to his desk and picked up the contract again. When he had reviewed this deal with Ryan a month ago, that trap of a clause hadn’t been there. And why the bloody hell was Ryan unreachable?Another thunderclap shook the glass panes, startling him. Then a sound cut through the roar of the rain, a piercing, blood-curdling scream from upstairs. Ragnar froze. His head snapped towards the door. It took a split second for his brain to register that th