Chapter 59
Chapter 59
Jasper’s POV
The bastard marked her.
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I stood by the cracked window of the old manor house, fists clenched so hard my knuckles popped. Snow drifted outside, peaceful and slow, like the world didn’t know it had just betrayed me.
She let him mark her.
I stared down at the bottle in my hand. Half-empty bourbon. I’d been nursing it since Estrella brought me t news. Now it just tasted like ash.
“You’re quiet,” she said behind me. Her tone was cautious, like she knew any wrong word might set me off. Smart girl.
I didn’t answer. Just tightened my grip until the glass groaned.
Estrella crossed the room slowly, her heels clicking on the old wooden floors. She stopped a few feet behind me, close enough for her perfume to reach me. Cherry and venom.
“They completed the ritual two nights ago,” she said, voice soft. “It was… public. The whole Silverlight Pack knows.”
I turned around.
My voice came out cold. “You watched?”
She blinked. “Not directly. I have people. They said it was… intense. Emotional. The wolves howled.”
Of course they did. Stupid, brainless creatures.
I walked toward her, each step deliberate. “And you didn’t think to stop it?”
Estrella’s lips parted slightly. “You told me not to interfere unless you gave the word.”
Wrong answer,
I slapped the bottle off the table. It shattered against the wall, bourbon spraying like blood. Estrella flinched but held her ground.
“You think I care what I told you last week?” I said, voice rising. “She’s mine. You don’t let someone else claim what’s mine.”
“She was never yours, Jasper,” she said, too fast.
The silence that followed was thick.
I smiled without humor. “Wrong again.”
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Estrella tensed. “I didn’t mean-
I was already moving.
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I slammed her back into the wall with one hand, her breath catching in her throat. My other hand grabbe her chin, forcing her to meet my eyes.
“Do not,” I growled, “ever tell me what is and isn’t mine.”
Her breath came quick, but she didn’t fight me. Estrella was clever that way. She knew survival meant stayi quiet.
“You’ve failed me once,” I said, loosening my grip. “You won’t get a second chance.”
“I didn’t fail you,” she said through her teeth. “I brought you the information. I gave you what
“And now you’re going to fix it.”
you wanted.”
I stepped back, walked to the leather bag sitting on the nearby table, and unzipped it slowly. The vials inside clinked softly against each other. Pale blue, green, one deep red.
I picked up the red one.
Estrella’s eyes flicked to it. “What is that?”
I held it up, watching the liquid swirl. “A gift from an old warlock I once… helped.”
“You mean tortured,” she muttered.
I smiled again. “Semantics.”
I turned toward her and let the light catch the vial just right. “This,” I said, “is a shifter compound. Changes your appearance for a full lunar cycle. Voice, scent, everything. You’ll be untraceable.”
Her expression shifted. Suspicion. “And you want me to use that to go where?”
I looked her dead in the eyes. “Inside.”
Estrella stilled.
“You’re going to Silverlight,” I said. “You’re going to tear them apart from the inside out. And you’re going to start by getting close to Ryder.”
Her lip curled. “He hates me.”
“Then be someone he doesn’t.”.
The room went quiet.
I let the weight of it hang in the air. Then I walked closer, holding the vial out between two fingers.
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“You’ll become whoever you need to be,” I said. “Someone they trust. Someone she trusts. Amelia’s soft. believes in people. That’s her weakness.”
“She’s not stupid,” Estrella said carefully.
“No,” I agreed. “But she’s sentimental. She’ll want to believe. You just have to give her a reason.”
Estrella stared at the vial like it was poison. It basically was.
“You’re asking me to become that maid’s friend,” she said.
I leaned in, voice low. “I’m telling you.”
Her
gaze flicked up. “What happens if I
say no?”
I didn’t answer right away. Just walked to the side table, opened a drawer, and pulled out a silver collar. Thick Heavy. Engraved with runes.
Her face went pale. “You wouldn’t.”
I dropped the collar at her feet.
“Try me.”
She stared at it, then at the vial in my hand.
I stepped closer. “Do this, Estrella, and I’ll give you anything. The revenge you want. Your status back. Power. Land. You can have it all.”
She swallowed hard. “And if I fail?”
I smiled.
It was the kind of smile that meant someone was going to die.
“If you fail,” I said softly, “I’ll feed your heart to my wolf and make you watch.”
Her throat worked. Her hands were shaking slightly.
But she took the vial.
I knew she would.
“Who do you want me to be?” she asked.
I turned and walked toward the table again, flipping open a file folder I’d had prepared.
Inside were photos. Some elders. Ryder’s healer. Kara, the nurse
But I tapped a different one.
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Delilah.
Amelia’s spiritual advisor. Her friend. The one she trusted with everything.
Estrella’s eyes widened. “You want me to become her?”
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“Think about it,” I said. “No one questions the mentor. No one suspects the one giving guidance. Get in. C her alone. Drive a wedge between them. Make her doubt him. Make him doubt her. And when they finally start to splinter, I move in.”
“And do what?”
I turned slowly.
“Burn everything.”
Estrella held the vial like it was burning her skin. “What if they see through it? What if Delilah shows up whi I’m-”
“She won’t,” I said. “She’s out of town for the solstice. Healing retreat. My spies confirmed it.”
“And if she cuts it short?”
“Then you improvise.”
Estrella nodded once. Tight. Resigned.
“When does the shift start?” she asked.
I tilted my head. “Twenty minutes after injection. You’ll be in pain the whole time. Like your bones are breaking. Because they basically are.”
“And if it doesn’t stop?”
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