Todos os capítulos de The Trapped Heiress: Capítulo 141 - Capítulo 150

"A binding spell, together with hypnosis, and it’s something old; only licensed witches are allowed to perform these kinds of spells." She swallowed and steadied herself. “They aren’t in their right minds. They are doing exactly what they were programmed to do, and unless the spell is broken, you can’t pull them out of it. You could question them for a hundred years, and it would make no difference. You could kill them, and they wouldn’t feel a thing.”Noah stared at the rogues, silently chanting in the dark, and his stomach dropped. These men had not chosen to attack; they had been puppets, and someone, somewhere, was still holding the strings.He dragged a hand through his hair and let out a growl of frustration. What do we do? Ingrid snarled, pacing furiously. We have nothing!“What do we do?” Noah echoed aloud; his voice was rough. “We have five days until the council meets. If I walk in with nothing, no name, no proof, how do we trace whoever is behind this? They have erased ever

“What?” Lula shrugged, utterly unrepentant, one hand holding her coffee mug. “I was merely making an observation.”Laurel gave a wet, helpless laugh, and then another and the last of the tension broke out of her in a shaky sigh. Lula grinned and set down her mug.“Come on,” she said, nudging them toward the dining room. “The little prince is waiting for his supper, and I am not sitting through a second round of drama on an empty stomach.”Gina was already settling Kian into his high chair at the head of the table. The moment he saw them, the baby kicked his feet and let out a delighted shriek. Lula scooped him up before anyone else could reach him and swung him around once, which he adored, then tucked him on her hip. “Who is the handsomest boy in the house?” she demanded.“Ba!” Kian declared.“Obviously.” She kissed his cheek. “Good answer.”The household gathered around the table, and as the dishes were passed and the candles lit, the heaviness in the room began to lift. Gina told

The woman, who had swept into the ball in golden silk, glittering and radiant, was gone. In her place stood a pale, hollow-eyed girl in a plain gray dress, her hair pulled carelessly back, her face devoid of her actual color. Dark shadows ringed her eyes, as though she had not slept in days. She walked as though her legs might fold beneath her at any moment.She and her mother took their seats directly opposite the Knights and the McKinleys. For a moment Sherry’s eyes lifted and found Noah, and a flicker of something desperate passed over her face, then they moved to Kian, sleeping in his arms, and her expression twisted into something Laurel could not name. She dropped her gaze to her lap and stared at her hands.I heard she went to half the council begging for help, Laurel thought. Every door closed in her face; it was a matter of lineage and safety, so one would touch it.A strange, hollow feeling settled in her chest. It was not pity, and it was not triumph; it was something quiet

Her voice carried to every tier of the great stone theatre, steady and clear.“I vanished, and I know how that must have looked. But the reason I left was not disloyalty; it was Alpha Hamilton. He threatened me and made me his captive.”“No!” Hamilton lunged to his feet, the chains between his wrists snapping taut. “It isn’t true! She is lying! She is a witch; she is twisting everything. You can’t believe a word she...”“Sit down, Alpha Hamilton,” said Elder Lucas, in a tone that left no room for argument.The guards pressed him back onto the black stone; he glared at Lula with undisguised hatred, his chest heaving, but he said nothing more.Lula did not even glance at him; she kept her eyes on the council, and when she spoke again, her voice had softened.“You all know that I have loved healing since the day I earned my degree. I practised at the common pack hospital of this council, and they were the happiest years of my life. I would have stayed there forever.” She paused, and some

Laurel felt it.It went through her like a cold thread drawn through her chest, she had heard that sound in the corridor outside Noah’s office, when Sherry was dragged away screaming. She had heard it in the ballroom, at the edge of her hearing, whenever Sherry came near. She had told herself it was only a trinket. I don’t like those bells, Lula had said in her mind, and Laurel had not understood at that time but finally they knew about it later when Lula had exposed Sherry. “Those bells,” Lula said, “are the heart of the spell.”A hush fell over the room.“The magic that was cast on Alpha Noah during his captivity cannot hold forever on its own. A binding of that kind fades. It needs an anchor, something to renew it, something to keep the thread taut.” Her voice was calm and clear, a healer explaining a diagnosis. “Those bells are the anchor, every time they ring in his presence, they tighten the bond. Every chime reaches into his mind and pulls it a little further toward the one wh