บททั้งหมดของ Alpha Daddy Take my Cherry : บทที่ 61 - บทที่ 70

She made it downstairs before they reached the door.She pulled it open before they could knock, stepped into the frame and kept her voice low and controlled."Niko is asleep," she said. "Whatever this is, it ends here."Leoric looked at her pleasantly. "Good evening, Liora.""Go home, Leoric.""I came to speak with Elias." He stepped forward. She didn't move fast enough and he was past her, into the hallway, just like that. Easy. Unbothered. Like he'd been inside this house a hundred times.Elowen followed. She caught Liora's eye as she passed and smiled.Liora turned around.Two of the household staff were already in the corridor. A maid near the kitchen door. One of the groundsmen who had come in late. Both of them still, both of them watching."Leoric." Liora kept her voice down. "This isn't the time.""Actually it is." He turned to face her in the hallway, hands easy at his sides, completely composed. "I've been patient with you, Liora. I gave you time. You didn't answer.""I sai

The silence was the worst part.Not Leoric's words. Not Elowen's performance. The silence that came after, when Elias looked at her and gave nothing back — no anger, no warmth, nothing she could read or argue against or reach through.Just those quiet eyes doing their calculations."It's not what she said," Liora said. She kept her voice steady. "None of what Elowen just described is what happened."Elias said nothing."Leoric refused to accept my rejection," she continued. "Not because he loves me. Not because he wants me back. Because he found out I was here and he couldn't stand it." She held Elias's gaze. "He's been using pack law as a leash since he found out I was in this house. Every text, every meeting, every deadline he gave me — it was never about getting me back. It was about control." She paused. "I never once considered going back to him.""She met him at a café," Elowen said."Because he asked me to," Liora said, still looking at Elias. "I went. I listened. I told him I'

Elias pulled the phone from his ear and looked at Liora once.Then he put it on speaker.Owen's voice filled the quiet living room. Unhurried. The particular pace of someone who knew they weren't going to be interrupted."The ritual itself is straightforward," Owen said. "Ancient, but reliable. It severs the remaining threads of an incomplete bond cleanly. Both parties walk away free. No legal grey area. No pack law complications." A pause. "I've performed it twice in my reign. Both times successfully.""And the price," Elias said."Not money this time." Owen's voice was almost pleasant about it. "I want the girl to come and stay at my palace. One week. As my guest."Silence."That's the price," Owen continued. "Seven days. She wants for nothing. Full comfort, full safety." Another pause. "And at the end of the week the ritual is performed and she's free.""No," Elias said.Flat. Immediate. Not a negotiating position."Elias—""I said no.""You haven't heard the full—""I don't need t

Elias pulled out a chair. "Sit," he said to Sophia. "Talk." Sophia sat. Caught her breath properly. Pushed her hair back. "Leoric has been accused of smuggling stolen goods across pack borders," she said. "That's the formal charge." She looked at Elias. "The goods in question are the same shipment. The one Kane's men hijacked from your convoy weeks ago." The kitchen was very quiet. "Kane's men took the shipment," Elias said carefully. "They did. But they didn't move it alone." Sophia looked at her hands briefly. Then back up. "The council's investigation found a second party involved in the distribution. Someone who had contact with Kane's remaining allies after Kane died. Someone who helped route the stolen goods across pack borders to avoid detection." She paused. "Leoric Thunderfang." Liora sat down slowly in the chair beside her. Elias said nothing for a moment. He stood at the edge of the counter and looked at a point somewhere past Sophia's shoulder and did the thing he

"What could he possibly know?" Sophia said.She said it first because Liora couldn't find words fast enough. She was still standing in the living room with Elias's eyes on her and the notification sitting on his screen and her mind running through every corner of her life looking for what Leoric could have found."I don't have secrets," she said carefully."Everyone has something," Elias said. Not accusatory. Just patient."Nothing that changes anything." She looked at him. "Nothing that—"She stopped.Freya had gone very still inside her.*He knows about me,* Freya said quietly.Liora's chest tightened."How?" she thought back.*I don't know. But what else would he have? What else about you could he frame as something dangerous?*Sophia was watching Liora's face. She knew that expression. She'd seen it enough times to read it."Liora," she said carefully. "What is it?""Freya," Liora said quietly. "He knows about Freya."---The council chamber was large and cold and designed to make