Billionaire's Betrayal a contracted revenge (Aurelia) novel Chapter 6

16:57 Fri, Jul 31

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Rieck’s POV

The only man who called me at this hour was Tobias.

:.

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My beta. The one I stationed at the edge of my territory because he could smell trouble long before it arrived –and because, next to me, he was the most dangerous thing within my borders.

He didn’t call at 1:47am for nothing.

“Speak.”

“You need to come out here, Alpha.”

“Where.”

“The east line. Past the river. I’ll send coordinates.”

“Is the city secure?”

“The city’s fine. It’s what’s outside that isn’t.”

I grabbed a coat, took the private elevator down to the garage, and drove myself.

The city thinned behind me-towers to buildings, buildings to empty stretches of road. By the time I reached the eastern boundary, an hour had passed and I hadn’t seen another car in thirty minutes.

Tobias stood under a cluster of leafless trees. Two men stood silently behind him. Waiting.

I stepped out and shut the door hard.

“Tobias. I left a warm house and a wife I’m supposed to be working on to come out here in the middle of the night. Tell me what I’m looking at-and tell me it’s worth it.”

He didn’t flinch. That was part of why I liked him.

“Follow me.”

He led me into a clearing where a body lay in the frost.

A male. Middle-aged. Nobody I recognized. His throat had been opened clean.

I looked at the corpse, then at Tobias.

“Tobias.”

“Yes Alpha”

“I run a hundred-billion-dollar company. I have a contract marriage and a rival trying to dismantle my

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family. And you brought me out here for a dead man I don’t know.”

“I didn’t call you about the man.”

“Then what.”

He knelt beside the body and pulled the collar aside.

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As soon as the light hit the shoulder, I saw three slashes. Not a knife wound. Claw marks, arranged in an angle with the top mark shorter than the rest.

I went still.

I had seen that pattern three times before in my life, and every time, something burned after.

“Tell me you’re wrong.”

“I’m not.”

“Whose.”

Tobias looked up.

“Kaelen.”

At that moment the air shifted.

The men stepped back without thinking.

Inside me, something old lifted its head.

“You’re sure.”

“I’ve tracked him since I was nineteen, Alpha. You put me out here for this exact reason. I am sure.”

I stood slowly.

“A message.” I said.

“A message,” Tobias agreed. “He dropped a body on your boundary. He wanted it found, he wanted you to know he’s already inside.”

I turned away from the corpse and walked into the dark, pressing my hand against a tree and steadied my

breathe.

“Tobias.”

“Alpha.”

“You didn’t call me for just this.”

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A pause.

“At the gala,” he said, “my men were in the service hall. They heard him speak to your wife.”

My jaw tightened.

“And.”

“He warned her about a war coming.”

Silence.

He said that to her, and she brought it home- and said nothing about it to me.

“Thank you, Tobias.”

“Alpha-”

“Burn the body. Salt the ground. Nothing leaves this field.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

The drive back was faster.

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Too fast.

Twice I corrected the wheel harder than necessary.

Breaking the car wouldn’t fix anything.

By the time I returned, the penthouse was dark and quiet.

I crossed the room and stopped at her door.

I didn’t bother to knock.

The door opened without a sound. She was curled under the duvet, one hand tucked under her cheek, she looked even smaller than she was.

“Aurelia.”

She woke instantly, sat up and held the sheet close to her chest.

“Rieck-what-”

“Get up.”

“What’s happening?”

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“Now.”

She didn’t argue.

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She got out of bed, pulling a robe around herself. Her bare feet made quiet steps as she followed me into the main room.

I turned on one lamp.

“Sit.”

She sat. But I stayed standing.

“At the gala,” I said, “Kaelen spoke to you.”

Her fingers tightened into the edge of the fabric.

“He didn’t-he just said-”

“What did he say?”

“Rieck-”

“What did he say, Aurelia?

She closed her eyes.

“He said war is coming. That I’m on the losing side.”

The room went very still.

Inside me, something asked-politely-to break something.

“When,” I said, “were you going to tell me?”

“I thought you heard-”

“He whispered it.”

“I didn’t think-”

“That’s the problem.”

She looked up.

That small lift of her chin again.

Fear. And something else under it.

“Then what do you want, Rieck?”

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I stepped closer, not touching her.

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“I want you to understand where you are. From now on-every whisper, every look, every word someone says to you-you tell me. You don’t decide what matters. I do.”

She nodded.

“Yes.”

“Say it properly.”

“Yes. I understand.”

“Good.”

Then I walked past her to the low bookshelf where, the day after she moved in, I had seen a maid unpack a small leather cosmetics bag.

I knelt down and opened the cabinet under it and pulled out two amber bottles of pills.

I stood and held them up.

“And these.”

Her face turned pale.

“They’re just ”

“Don’t lie.”

“Vitamins.”

I read the labels. Two names I did not know. Long words. Compound. Not something bought casually.

“Say it again.”

“Prenatal support.”

“For fertility.”

“You’re taking them.”

“Yes.”

“Without telling me.”

“You haven’t touched me, Reick. I thought I was supposed to be ready. I thought..”

“Aurelia.”

She stopped.

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