"You're taller than the pictures."Phineas didn't turn around. He didn't have to. That voice—soft, melodic, like a blade wrapped in velvet—had lived in the back of his throat for twenty years. It was the sound of a lullaby that ended in a scream."The pictures were of a child you abandoned." Phineas adjusted the black diamond cufflink on his wrist. His hands didn't shake. He wouldn't give her that. "The man standing in front of you is the King of this house. Who gave you permission to enter the private gallery?""I don't need permission to walk through my own history, Phineas."He turned then. She stood by the window, the moonlight catching the silver embroidery of her gown. She looked exactly like the portrait in the attic. Not a day older. Not a single gray hair. Her eyes were the same stormy gray as Solomon’s, but there was no shadow in them. Only the cold, flat shine of a predator."You died in the Great Fire." Phineas stepped into the light. "I saw the urn. I saw the memorial.""

"They’re waiting."Lucian’s voice rasped in the dark of the study. He didn't turn on the lights. He didn't have to. The glow from the courtyard was enough—rows of black sedans, their headlights cutting through the rain like the eyes of deep-sea predators. The heads of the twelve great families. The Mafia kings. The ones who had spent decades trying to bleed the Aurelius line dry."Let them wait." Phineas sat at his desk, his fingers tracing the edge of a heavy, vellum scroll. "A minute of their time is a decade of mine. They’ve come to beg, Lucian. I want them to feel every second of their desperation.""They aren't begging. They’re bargaining." Lucian walked to the window. He checked the clip of his obsidian-weighted pistol. "The 'Treaty of Eternal Silence.' They give up their claims to your territory. They stop the hits. They acknowledge you as the High Alpha of the Council. In exchange, you give them back the supply routes.""The supply routes are worth more than their silence." Ph

"Drink it. Every drop."Lucian pressed the rim of the silver chalice against my lower lip. The liquid inside smelled like iron and rotting lilies. I tried to turn my head. The movement sent a bolt of white fire through my neck. My skin felt like it was being stripped from my bones by invisible claws. The Lunar Burn wasn't just an allergy anymore. It was a consumption."I can't." My voice was a dry rattle. "My throat... it's closed.""I don't care." Lucian’s hand moved to the back of my head. He gripped my hair, tilting my face up. His eyes weren't amber. They were a flat, terrifying black. "If I have to pour it down your lungs myself, you are swallowing this. Open."I opened. The bitter slush slid down my throat. I gagged. My stomach roiled, forcing a jagged sob out of my chest. I slumped back against the pillows, sweat soaking through the silk sheets. My pulse was a frantic, irregular thud against the mattress."The boys?" I whispered."They're with the guard." Lucian set the cup dow

All Chapters of ALPHA Arthur: The Mate Who Lied: Chapter 71 - Chapter 73

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