The air around him seed to thicken under the weight of his presence, his domineering aura spilling outward like a storm breaking its bounds.
Outside, no one dared co close, not even near the staircase leading up to the Alpha suite. The ogas in the packhouse shrank back, trembling where they stood, their instincts screaming at them to keep their distance.
It wasn’t just anger they felt radiating from him; it was sothing far more dangerous, sothing that made even the bravest hesitate.
"Nate... please, talk to , will you?" Maddison’s voice trembled, the plea catching weakly in her throat as she pressed closer to the door, refusing to give up despite the fury raging on the other side.
She had thought, truly believed, that once Ashley was gone, everything would finally fall into place. That she would have Nathan entirely to herself, that the life she had always dread of would unfold before her: wealth, affection, a complete and loving family, and a devoted fiancé who would never look elsewhere.
But reality had turned cruel.
The mont news of Ashley’s fall to her death spread, the atmosphere in her house had shifted completely. The warmth that had once filled it after their reconciliation vanished, replaced by a heavy, suffocating gloom.
Her parents, who should have been relieved, moved like shadows of themselves, their joy extinguished as if they were silently mourning soone they could no longer reach.
Brent and Blake fared no better, both burying themselves in distractions during the day, only to drown themselves in alcohol by night until they could no longer tell east from west, Ashley’s na slipping from their lips in drunken murmurs.
It wasn’t the life Maddison had imagined.
Not even close.
The atmosphere in the house was suffocating, pressing in on Maddison until it felt like she might lose her mind. She refused, absolutely refused, to accept that they were all grieving Ashley, as if her absence mattered more than the life still in front of them.
It was unbearable, watching them sink into that quiet sorrow, so she fought against it in the only way she knew how.
From morning until night, she moved restlessly through the house, chasing after every mber of the family, her father, her mother, her brothers, and most of all, Nathan. She filled the silence with forced brightness, bringing up trivial, cheerful things, trying to pull them out of the gloom as if she could overwrite their grief with her sheer persistence.
Yet beneath it all, she deliberately ignored the truth she could clearly see, their hollow expressions, their distant eyes, the way their voices had lost warmth. She pretended not to notice, clinging stubbornly to the illusion that if she tried hard enough, she could make them forget Ashley entirely.
Because of Ashley’s death, Nathan had postponed their mating ceremony, refusing even to speak of it for now.
The decision struck Maddison like a slap she couldn’t return. Rage simred beneath her skin, hot and relentless, until it felt like her vision itself might turn red from it. Yet she had nowhere to direct that anger, no one she could lash out at without consequences, so it festered inside her, twisting into sothing sharper and more bitter.
And even knowing Ashley was gone, that she should have no power left to affect anything, Maddison still couldn’t let it go.
In her heart, she continued to hate her, clinging to that resentnt as she blad both Ashley and her mother for everything that had begun to fall apart around her.
With reddened eyes, Maddison raised her hand and knocked again, refusing to give up despite the silence and chaos behind the door. She called out to Nathan once more, her voice strained but insistent, clinging to the hope that he would answer her this ti.
"I said, get lost!" Nathan’s voice tore through the door, rough and distorted, as if sothing other than human was clawing its way into his words. It was a dangerous blend of man and beast, a clear sign that he was on the brink of losing control, his wolf pushing violently against whatever restraint he had left.
The sound alone was enough to make Maddison freeze. A cold shiver ran down her spine, her skin prickling as fear crept in despite herself. Her body trembled, instincts screaming at her to step back, to run, but still, she remained rooted in place, caught between dread and stubborn resolve.
"Why... why did it turn out like this? It wasn’t supposed to, this wasn’t how it should be..." Maddison muttered under her breath, her voice trembling as she clamped both hands over her ears, trying to muffle the relentless crashing of glass from Nathan’s room.
Each shattering sound felt like sothing inside her breaking along with it. She couldn’t make sense of it, how everything had unraveled so completely, how the future she had been so certain of had slipped through her fingers.
She had believed she’d won, that with Ashley gone, there would finally be space for her, a place she could claim without resistance. And yet, instead of gaining everything, she was losing control of it all.
Her thoughts twisted, darkening into sothing unstable and ugly. "Then... wouldn’t it have been better if she stayed alive?" she whispered hoarsely, her lips trembling as her eyes grew unfocused.
"Better if she suffered, let her live a living hell... then I’ll make her watch while I take everything from her, while slowly torturing her, let her see how happy I’ll beco and let her die slowly with regrets and ache..." The words sounded unhinged even as they left her mouth, but she didn’t stop herself, didn’t try to pull back.
In that mont, reason slipped further from her grasp, leaving behind only bitterness, regret, and a creeping madness she could no longer contain.
Before she could even finish, the door suddenly exploded open. Nathan, who had been raging inside without pause, burst out with such force that the door slamd against the wall, its hinges groaning as it hung crookedly to one side.
He stood there, chest heaving violently, his eyes burning a furious red as they locked onto Maddison, who was still crouched on the floor. The air around him felt sharp, dangerous, as if it could cut.
"What did you just say?" he snarled, his voice low but laced with sothing far more nacing than before.
Sowhere in the haze of his fury, he had heard her, just enough to catch the aning behind her words.
Ever since Ashley’s known death, his senses had beco unnaturally sharp whenever it concerned her, as though even the faintest ntion could drag him back from the brink.
Maddison hadn’t spoken a na, not outright, but Nathan felt that she had been talking about Ashley. And that single suspicion was enough to slice through the chaos in his mind, pulling a fragnt of reason back into place.
It was that sliver of clarity that stopped his rampage and brought him out of the room, his gaze now fixed on Maddison with a terrifying focus, as if he could tear the truth out of her if he just pressed hard enough.
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