Chapter 6
Grief didn’t come gently.
It hit Dorian like a tidal wave–fast, brutal, and unforgiving.
He stood frozen, clutching the letter in his hand, his knuckles bone–white. His eyes were bloodshot, locked on those words like they were a curse carved into his soul.
The others had followed him here–Miranda, Lydia, Cecilia–but none of them came out of guilt.
They came because they wanted answers.
Not about me.
About the babies.
“Wait… she really died?” Lydia’s face twisted. “Ugh, that means all those hormone shots were for nothing. I went through hell for this!”
Miranda frowned, finally letting the
- in.
“We were so close to seven months…
didn’t
to
her
nes.
But then she remembered the boxes. The ash. The
end like this.”
wwwcent. Her face paled again, the chill returning t
Dorian turned on them, eyes sharp enough to cut.
“Isabella is dead,” he said, voice low and dangerous. “And all you care about is the children?”
Lydia scoffed. “What, you want me to cry over her? She’s dead, so what? My child died with her. If she were alive, I’d make her pay and beg for forgiveness.”
The slap came out of nowhere.
It cracked across Lydia’s face with such force she stumbled back, stunned.
“She was your sister–in–law!” Dorian bellowed. “How could you say something like that?!”
Lydia clutched her cheek, eyes wide in disbelief. “Sister–in–law? I never accepted her! Isabella never deserved to be Luna! She was nothing but a-”
Dorian lunged again, but her boyfriend yanked her out of reach.
Miranda, shaken, stepped in quickly, changing her tone. “That’s not what she meant. Of course we’re upset–those babies were ours, our blood. But how… how did Isabella even end up in a car crash?”
That set something off in Dorian.
His hand clenched around the letter again, his voice tight. “She found out.”
He looked around the room, fury pulsing off him.
“She knew the truth. That’s why she sent the ashes. That’s why she left.”
His eyes landed on a pack member lurking near the edge of the room.
“The video,” he said darkly. “You posted it.”
He lunged.
A sickening crack echoed through the air as Dorian’s fists found their target again and again.
“I didn’t mean it!” the man sobbed, blood pouring from his mouth. “I didn’t know she’d see it–”
Ethan tried to pull Dorian back. “Stop it! Dorian, stop! If you keep going, you’ll kill him-
Chapter 6
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But Dorian whirled and drove a punch straight into Ethan’s face.
The crunch of cartilage echoed.
Ethan went down hard, clutching his face, blood spurting from his nose.
Dorian didn’t stop. Anyone who came close, he swung at.
He was past the point of control–wild, feral, not Alpha but beast.
Miranda backed away, terrified. “Dorian… please…”
Lydia rushed to stop him, hands trembling. “Dorian, these are your friends! Are you really going to kill them for her?! For Isabella?!”
“She’s dead! And you didn’t even like her! You said it yourself–she wasn’t your fated mate. So what the hell are you so angry about now?!”
Dorian turned, eyes red, veins bulging in his neck.
And then he grabbed Lydia by the throat.
“Shut. Your. Mouth.”
Miranda screamed, rushing forward. “Do which 1884. 11 all t
But Dorian turned to her, his voice sharp
for you.”
go! That’s your sister! What are you doing?!”
accusation.
wwwwwww It was you. You were the one who suggested Isabella should carry the baby
“I didn’t mean it that way,” Miranda stammered. “I only said childbirth was painful…”
In that moment, the truth hit him. It hadn’t been Miranda’s idea at all. It had been his.
Because Miranda feared the pain, he’d thought of me–because I never did.
His hand dropped as if the strength had drained from his body, his eyes dull and vacant, like a man finally realizing the weight of what he’d done.
Lydia, disgusted by his sudden display of emotion, stepped forward and tore through his silence with brutal clarity.
“Really, Dorian? Are we supposed to believe that now, after Isabella’s gone, you’ve discovered some buried love for her? Because the last I checked, you were the one who claimed you didn’t even like her. You were the one who agreed she should carry someone else’s
child.”
“You’re also the one who fed her birth control for three years so she couldn’t get pregnant, and when that failed, you tricked her into IVF.”
“The four children growing in her belly weren’t a surprise, Dorian–they were your idea. So don’t stand there like some grieving lover. You don’t get to regret it now.”
Chapter 6