Page 28

Gunnar might be attentive to my physical needs—carrying me up stairs, checking on my comfort, obsessing over my delicate frame—but he wasn't smart enough to piece together what I was actually doing. To him, I was just a blind, fragile wife he had to shelter. He’d break Corin, hear a jumble of contradictory secrets, and never once suspect that the mastermind sowing chaos across the territories was lying right in his own bed.

My attention went back to Diego. His heartbeat thumped erratically and fast in the empty bathroom. He closed the distance between us, stepping so close I felt the heat radiating off his body, smelled the heavy spike of arousal in his scent.

"Did that brute hurt you, Rose?"

"No, he didn't hurt me," I lied.

But was it a lie? Gunnar had warned me he was a big boy. I was the one who had forced him into me. And yeah, it had hurt. But not enough to deter me from wanting to do it again. Just thinking about that fullness and stretching…

"Tell me, princess," Diego continued, his hand brushing against the curve of my waist. "Does your kitty need a kiss?"

I stood frozen against the marble counter, my breath hitching in my throat. I was stressed out by the kinks in my plan that I hadn't foreseen. I could do with an orgasm.

I was tempted.

I really was.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

GUNNAR

"He's dead," I said without preamble. "I left him in the cellar. You can send a sweep team to bag him."

Vidar didn't even turn around. "Did he talk, or did you just smash him into pulp before he could give you a single syllable?"

"I am clinical, Vidar. I don't smash; I applied the appropriate amount of pressure to get the results I needed."

"Did you get what we needed?" asked Magnus.

"Yes. Corin Petrakis sobbed like a child. And then I smashed his head in."

"A riveting display of primal force, I'm sure," Vidar murmured, finally turning toward us, his dark eyes narrowing. "And what, pray tell, did your hulk smashing fists produce?"

"Nothing that makes sense. The Ironwood pack didn't launch an attack because they thought they could take our territory. They thought we were buying up the waterfront to cut off their docks."

Vidar frowned, his brow furrowing. "Dad never entertained dockland acquisitions. The margins are garbage, and the local municipality is a bureaucratic swamp. It makes zero operational sense."

"It gets worse. Petrakis swore Elias Vane got our shipping routes from a source inside the Lobo pack. The Volki were fed bullshit that we were moving into their counterfeit operation. Dante Lupetto heard his pack was looking weak with Vidar taking Addie's hand after her arranged marriage with Valentino was denied, which pushed him to grab Addie." I paused, resting my elbows on my knees. "The whole damn thing is like a gossip show. Like it was a chaotic clusterfuck engineered to make every major pack panic and start chewing on each other's throats."

Magnus set his tablet down on the mahogany surface, the soft thud drawing both our eyes to him. He looked between the two of us, his expression calm, detached, and distinctly older-brotherly. "Who gains from this?"

"No one," said Vidar.

"Corin swears — swore—" I corrected my tense, "it all traces back to a Lobo Enforcer."

Vidar pinched the bridge of his nose as he looked out the window. "Sorsha Lobo has been playing matriarch chess for a decade. It tracks."

I wasn't convinced. "It's a convenient arrow to point."

"Are you saying that because of your new wife?" asked Vidar.

"Did I hesitate to have your back when your new wife was taken by the Lupettoes? Or when her little brother needed help with patricide?"

Vidar clenched his jaw, which was the closest I was going to get to an apology.

"Gentlemen," Magnus cut in smoothly, raising a single hand. He didn't raise his voice, but the Alpha authority in it made the room instantly cool down. "Save the dick-measuring for the boxing ring. Someone is intentionally stirring up discord. They’re burning bridges from both ends and hiding their tracks in the smoke."

I snorted, pushing myself up out of the leather chair. "Right. Well, I've done my part. I broke the traitor, delivered the intel, and now I'm going home to my wife."