Lahat ng Kabanata ng ALHPA ABRAM: And the four daughter: Kabanata 31 - Kabanata 40

"Where the hell were you?"Abram’s voice was a dry rattle in the dark. He sat up, the silk sheets pooling around his waist. The room smelled like stale bourbon and the chemical tang of the sedatives. He reached out, his hand trembling as he caught my wrist. His grip was weak, desperate. The Alpha who had once broken bones with a casual flick of his wrist was now a shell, a pathetic junkie for the only person left in his hollow world."Just getting some water, Abram," I lied. The letter opener was still in my hand, hidden in the folds of my robe. I could feel the cold edge against my palm. "Go back to sleep.""No. Stay." He pulled me toward the bed, his face burying into my stomach. He breathed me in like I was oxygen and he was drowning. "I had that dream again. The one where you’re gone. Everyone is gone, Elara. Vane... the Council... even my mother’s portrait felt cold tonight.""I'm right here," I whispered. I let the metal blade slide silently under the pillow. Not yet.He looked

" Just subscribe it, Abram. also we can leave this hell before." The gold- plated pen sat on the edge of the mahogany office, a heavy, silent substantiation. Abram goggled at the mound of papers, his eyes bloodshot and unfocused. He had not slept. The chemical tang of the anodynes still cleaved to his skin, mixing with the scent of precious bourbon and the sweat of his own paranoia. " Everything, Elara?" His voice was a dry scrape." The Cayman accounts? The deed to the safe house in Zurich? It’s all in then?" " Everything." I leaned over him, my white silk sleeve brushing his shoulder." The Council is moving at noon.However, they’ll indurate them before we hit the tarmac, If these means stay in your name. We need them in the common account. Untraceable. safe-deposit box." Abram’s hand floated over the documents. His jaw tensed, the muscle jumping in his impertinence. That old instinct — the bonethat had erected an conglomerate on blood — flitted in his aspectfor a twinkle. He lo

"Where the hell is she? The pilot said we had a ten-minute window."Abram paced the length of the private hangar, his boots echoing against the polished concrete. He clutched the leather bag Elara had packed—the one supposed to contain their new life. Every few seconds, his hand twitched toward his empty hip, reaching for a Glock that sat miles away in a bedside drawer. He looked at the digital clock on the hangar wall. 12:15. The jet sat silent on the tarmac, its engines cold, the boarding stairs still retracted."Sir, we can’t reach the tower," the mechanic muttered, avoiding Abram's gaze.Abram didn't hear him. He was staring at the perimeter gate.While Abram waited for a ghost, I walked through the glass doors of the Council’s headquarters.The white silk of my wedding gown trailed behind me, whispering against the granite floor. I hadn’t changed. I wanted them to see the blood-stained bride. I wanted them to see the "Saint" who had survived the monster."You can't go in there! T

"Who the hell authorized this delivery?"The courier recoiled, nearly tripping over the marble threshold. He held the box out as if it were a ticking bomb. "I just follow the route, lady. It came through the priority gate. Security cleared it.""Get out. Now."The door hissed shut. Elara stood in the center of the foyer, the air conditioning humming a low, dead tone. The penthouse was a graveyard of white marble and glass. Silence pressed against her eardrums, heavier than the roar of the city fifty floors below. Every shadow held a ghost. Over by the floor-to-ceiling windows, the ghost of Abram’s gentle gaslighting sat in an armchair, telling her she was nothing without him. In the master suite, the ghost of their intense passion waited under the sheets.She tore the tape off the box. Her nails caught on the cardboard, jagged and sharp. Inside sat a single white rose. Someone had dipped it in black wax, preserving the petals in a thick, morbid crust. A square of heavy cardstock lay b

"Just take it and go. Don't make me call the guards to dump you in the gutter."The check sat on the grease-stained kitchen table. Five million. A clean exit. Her father reached for it, his yellowed fingernails scratching against the wood. He didn't look at Elara. He didn't ask how she’d survived the Silas penthouse. He just tracked the zeros with a hunger that made his jaw tremble."This enough to cover the markers at the docks?" he wheezed."It's enough to buy a small island. Get out of the city. If I see your face in my district again, I'll let the Council handle you."The man stood up, shoving the paper into a pocket of his moth-eaten coat. He paused at the door, but not for a hug. "You always were the lucky one, Elara. Wolfless or not, you found a way to bleed a King dry."The door clicked shut. Silence reclaimed the cramped apartment. No love. No regret. Just a gambler moving on to a fresh table.Back at the office, the air was different. Controlled. Cold. Julian, a noble Lycan