Chapter 72
Aria’s POV
“No… no, no!”
Delilah stared at Grayson in horror. Her voice broke as she cried out, “You can’t do this to him. He–he’s my husband…How can you exile him?! What about our marriage? What about me?”
“You still want to be his wife after all these?” Grayson said coldly. “Honestly, I should’ve never agreed to let you marry him in the first place.
Jace dropped to the ground with a thud, his face pale as a ghost,
He mumbled, “A… street wolf? That’s basically a homeless stray…I–I’ll have no ID, no official job, I’ll be digging through trash just to eat… Everything I’ve worked for, everything I’ve built…it’ll be all gone!”
A loud, gut–wrenching cry broke out from the crowd.
Mrs. Carter threw herself onto her son. She grabbed his shoulders and shook him violently.
“No! No, tell them they are fucking insane! My precious son can’t become a street wolf. You’re supposed to inherit all of Apex and Red Stone Pack! You can’t let these people do this to you!” she screamed.
Mr. Carter rushed in front of them and spat at Grayson. “Fuck you! My son is highly respected by all the members here. If you dare expel him, he can order the soldiers to arrest you!”
It was so absurd that I actually laughed.
“Go ahead, then,” I mocked. “Give your order to the soldiers. Let’s see who actually listens to you.”
Mr. Carter really turned to face the guards and shouted, “Protect my son! And throw Grayson Hart from this building right now!”
Not a single soldier moved.
They just stared back at him like he was a pathetic clown.
“Arrest this man,” Grayson ordered.
That’s when the soldiers stepped in. They surged forward, twisted Mr. Carter’s arms behind his back, and shackled him without hesitation.
“No! Stop! Not my husband too!”
Jace’s mother shrieked in despair, but no one gave a damn about her opinion.
Then she spun toward Delilah and shrieked, “YOU! Fucking do something! Are you just going to stand there and let them treat your husband and his family like this?!”
Delilah’s lips trembled. “I don’t… I don’t know what to do. My brother already signed the order. No one can defy it…”
“Bullshit! You just don’t want to save him. You never loved Jace, you cold bitch!”
SLAP!
She actually slapped Delilah across the face!
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Gasps echoed through the hall. Delilah covered her face, letting out a furious scream. “You old hagl How dare you hit me?!
“Why the hell not?” Mrs. Carter panted. “Jace’s your husband. I’m your mother–in–law. I can discipline you however I want. And I swear to Moon Goddess, I’ll rip your pretty little face off if you don’t help my son!”
This was getting completely out of control.
I even saw a few guests pull out their phones to start recording.
“Guards, get all three of them out of here,” I snapped. “And please everyone, put your phone down.”
The soldiers quickly shackled the entire Carter family and began dragging them toward the doors.
Jace looked like he was already traumatized. He didn’t even resist.
His parents, on the other hand, hurled curses at Grayson the whole time until the soldiers finally gagged them.
Delilah still had the red imprint of that slap on her cheek. She pulled herself up, humiliated, and ran out the doors in tears.
The room finally fell into silence.
But the guests were all standing on their spots awkwardly, unsure of what to do.
They’d all come here for Jace’s birthday celebration. And now the guest of honor had been tossed into prison.
“I apologize that you all had to witness this family disgrace,” Grayson said, his deep voice echoing across the hall.
There were murmurs of understanding.
“This pack has faced quite a bit of turmoil lately,” he continued. “But I promise you. There will be no more chaos. I’ve come back as your Alpha, and I will ensure Red Stone Pack’s power and peace it always has.”
Wolf howls rose from all directions. Loud, unified, echoing.
Members of the pack threw back their heads and howled in salute. One by one, the guests bowed low, showing respect to their Alpha.
It was… overwhelming to witness.
I stood beside Grayson, and I could feel my heart pounding in my chest.
“There’s still plenty of food and drink,” Grayson said. “Please, enjoy the party. Don’t let this grand occasion go to waste.”
And the music finally started up again.
The guests visibly relaxed and slowly returned to their conversations.
Though I knew tonight’s gossip would all be about Delilah and her disgraceful husband and his family.
“Where did she go?” I whispered.
“She won’t have gone far,” Grayson said coolly. “Give her some space. Maybe she’ll finally realize on how stupid she’s been lately.”
He looked down at me and caught my chin in one hand. His thumb brushing gently over my lips.
I could feel the possessiveness in his touch. Like a dominant male ready to claim its female.
10:36. Sun: 10 Aug
Chapter 72
“So. Now the truth is out. You know I wasn’t the one who hurt your grandmother and your friend,” he said, voice low and gravelly
“Yeah,” I said quietly.
*Then we can go back to how it used
and your full heart.”
I stayed quiet.
to
- be. Back to the start of our contract. No more distance, no more coldness. I want all of you. Your body
“Aria?” he demanded, his tone turning sharper.
I took a shaky breath. “Getting rid of Delilah and Jace doesn’t fix what’s broken between us…Things can’t go back to the way they were.”
Because those things really did happen.
He had pointed a gun at May and my grandmother.
He had taken my virginity against my will.
He had made me realize that there’d be no future between us and I’d forever be a plaything to him.
If anything, everything that’s happened lately has shown me who he really is. His dark, controlling, and possessive soul.
He’s not the perfect man I once thought.
So no… we can’t never go back.
Grayson’s grip on my jaw tightened abruptly, anger flashing in his eyes.
“Do you always have to make everything so hard, Aria?” he growled.
“You could make it easy. Let me go. And everything else would fall into place…”
He didn’t let me finish.
He leaned in and crushed his lips to mine in a rough, dominating kiss.
“Never,” he growled when he pulled away. “Like I said. The terms of our contract? They’re forever.”
Third Person POV
In the deepest cell of Red Stone Pack’s underground prison, Jace and his parents were huddled together.
They’d worked so hard to become upper–class people. And yet everything was ruined now.
Mr. Carter’s suit was torn, Mrs. Carter’s hair was a tangled mess, and she’d lost one of her shoes.
“Oh god… oh god… what should we do now?”
Mrs. Carter wailed, her voice growing hoarse from crying for the past hour. “Jace, how could you end up a street wolf? I already told everyone back home you were going to be Red Stone’s future Alpha! What will they think of us now?”
Jace sat in a corner alone.
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His arms wrapped around his head, completely silent.
“Say something, son!” she sobbed, pounding the floor with her fists. “Tell us you have a plan! You always have a way out…You can’t let that bitch and her brother ruin us like this!”
“ENOUGH!” Jace suddenly roared. “Will you just shut the fuck up?! Fuck…this–this is all your fault! If you hadn’t come here and embarrass me in front of everyone, none of this would’ve happened!”
“Our fault?” his mother shrieked in shock. “You gave me that stupid necklace! You knew it was fake, didn’t you?! That’s how little you care about your poor mother–and now you’re blaming me now?”
Mr. Carter exploded as well. “Listen to your mom! We paid for your damn school. We funded your entire life in the city so you could finally achieve something. We should be enjoying a fancy spa at a 5–star hotel at the moment, and look us now! We are looked in a goddamn dungeon! And you dare to blame us?!”
Jace raised his head slowly, his eyes bloodshot.
He looked frantic.
“I said–SHUT UP!”
His crazy roar echoed in the cell.
“You two fucking bastards. I’m so fucking sick of you! You and that shithole you called home is nothing but a stain on my future! Do you know how much it’s cost me to escape my past and origin?!”
His parents stared at him in stunned silence.
Jace’s chest heaved. “From now on… stay quiet. Don’t piss me off again. Because your lives may depend on me now.”
Right that moment, light footsteps echoed down the corridor outside their cell.
Jace jumped up and rushed to the bars. He saw a slim figure appeared at the end of the hallway, running toward them.
He let out a long breath of relief, shaking. “Thank god… baby, I knew you’d come for me.”
Delilah dropped to her knees in front of the cell and grabbed his hands through the bars. Tears streamed down her cheeks.
“How could I not come? You’re my husband. God, Jace, I’m so sorry… Everything that happened…it’s all my fault.”
“It is your fault!” Jace’s mother shrieked behind him. “You useless bitch, you threw him under the bus back there and now he’s paying the price.”
“Shut up, Mom!”
Jace snapped, tightening his grip on Delilah’s hands.
“This isn’t Delilah’s fault. And I love her. I’d take whatever punishment just to protect her.”
His mother cursed in anger. But Delilah burst into tears again, “Oh Jace, I love you too… God, if there’s anything I can do to save you… anything at all… I’ll do it.”
Jace’s gaze locked onto hers. “Anything?”
“Yes. Of course. You’ve always been the smart one. Please tell me you have a plan.”
AIC.
10:36 Sun, 10 Aug
Chapter 72
“…I do,” he said quietly.
3
His eyes gleamed with something wicked in the dark.
“But I’m not sure you’ll like it.”
