All Chapters of THE CONTRACT WIFE OF THE DEMON WOLF: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

ZAINI watched the gala footage for the sixth time before I finally threw my phone onto the desk. The screen stayed lit, frozen on the same image of Lena standing in front of Aaron with one hand pressed against his chest while the entire ballroom watched.I had expected to feel satisfied.Instead, my stomach had been tight since the first time I'd seen the video, and I couldn't figure out why. This was supposed to prove what I'd been saying all along, that Lena's position at Wildcat was built on a situation nobody understood and a man whose family had been hiding something dangerous for years.The footage should have made my case for me. Instead, all I could see was Lena getting hurt.I replayed the part where Aaron's claws caught her arm and immediately stopped the video before the wound appeared on screen. I told myself I was only bothered because she was connected to Wildcat, because anything that damaged the club could damage my career too, but I knew that wasn't the whole trut

AARONI had followed Lena from a distance after she left the arena, telling myself I only wanted to make sure she got home safely after everything that had happened at the gala. Even after the danger had passed, some instinct had refused to let me leave her alone with Zain, and I had trusted that instinct enough to stay nearby.I had not expected to see Zain holding her wrist when I came around the corner of the parking structure. The sight of his hand around her skin hit me so quickly that my body reacted before I had time to think, and my wolf surged hard beneath my control.It was not the demon this time. There was no darkness pushing against my mind, no violent hunger demanding that I tear someone apart, and no loss of control waiting behind my eyes.This was jealousy, plain and ugly, and I hated how immediate it was. I had no right to feel that way over a woman who had once been married to the man standing in front of me, yet watching Zain touch her had made every part of me wa

LENAI carried Raina's letter into Aaron's office the following morning, still folded along the same creases I had made over and over again since her funeral. The name at the bottom had been bothering me all night, and I knew I couldn't make sense of it alone.Aaron looked up from his laptop when I entered. “What's wrong?”I placed the letter on his desk and pulled out the chair opposite him. “I found something in Raina's letter that I missed before.”He closed the laptop without asking me to explain. “Show me.”I unfolded the paper and pointed to the damaged section near the end. The name was difficult to read, but after comparing the letters against the other names mentioned in the letter, I was certain it said Thoren.Aaron leaned closer, careful not to touch the paper. “You're sure?”“No, but I'm close enough to find out.”He nodded and reached for his tablet. “Then let's check the registry.”The registry was the same one we had used when we first started looking into Thoren. It

LENAI stared at the name until the letters stopped looking like ink on an old page and became a person I knew. My mind went through every conversation I had shared with him since Raina's death, every meeting, every polite question about how I was coping, and every time I had accepted his concern without wondering why he seemed so interested in my family.Alpha Gary.I said the name under my breath, then looked at the ledger again as if another answer might appear if I waited long enough. His signature was faded in places, but it was still clear, and beside it was the date of Raina's death and the apartment number.I remembered meeting him at Alpha gatherings after the funeral. He had offered condolences, spoken about how difficult it was to lose someone young, and once told me that Raina had seemed like a bright girl whenever he had seen her at public events.I had believed him.I remembered another conversation months later when he asked how I was managing everything after Raina's

LENAI stared at the photograph on my phone until Aaron pulled a chair beside mine, and neither of us spoke for several seconds because Raina’s face was clear enough to leave no room for doubt. The timestamp in the corner showed 8:17 p.m., only a few hours before the official time of her death, and I kept thinking about how different that night might have been if I had known she was being watched.Aaron took the phone from me and enlarged the image, moving through the background one section at a time. “There,” he said, pointing toward a dark vehicle parked across the street, and when I leaned closer, I saw a small silver marking near the rear light.He recognized it before I did, and the change in his expression made me sit up. The vehicle had been connected to men who were present around the time his family’s estate was attacked years ago, and Aaron said the same vehicle had appeared in an old security report he had kept because he never understood why it had been there.I looked b