Housebound with the Blackridge Heirs novel Chapter 92

Chapter 92

Chapter 92

Tylon

I was going to kill every last one of them.

That was the only thing anchoring me as the suppressant gas thinned enough to breathe properly again.

My wolf was silent under the chemical weight, buried so deep I couldn’t feel even a flicker of him, yet nothing could dull the violence rushing through my veins.

Maya trembled beside me. I sensed it before she made a sound…her breath faltering, her pulse stuttering, and her entire body leaning subtly into mine as instinct fought to make her small.

Even without a wolf and even without a bond amplifying her emotions into my skull, I would have known she was afraid.

She shouldn’t have been afraid.

Not here.

Not while standing next to me.

I wrapped an arm around her waist, drawing her firmly against my side. “Stay behind me. Do not move unless I tell you to.”

Her fingers balled in my shirt, clinging before she could think better of it. The spark of heat that shot through me at the contact was unwelcome and intoxicating all at once. I hated this place, hated that she needed comfort, but I couldn’t lie to myself-I loved the feeling of her holding on to me.

The Council woman stood a few feet ahead, hands clasped lightly, her expression the practiced serenity of someone convinced she held the upper hand.

“There is no reason to panic,” she said. “The suppressant is simply protocol. Nothing more.”

“Protocol,” I repeated, letting the word vibrate with threat. “If anything else falls from the ceiling, or if anything goes wrong in that meeting, you’ll be the first example I make in front of the Council. I don’t care who you are or what they’ll try.”

Fear flashed across her features before she hid it beneath polite neutrality. “Your frustration and fear is understood, Alpha Blackridge, but threats are not tolerated.”

I simply growled, though not from my wolf, and she took a noticeable step back.

She cleared her throat and adjusted her jacket. “Please follow me.”

Maya clenched my shirt harder. I could feel her heart racing, and the protective instinct rose like wildfire beneath my ribs. Even stripped of power, reduced to something too human, every part of me responded to her nearness.

Not just my wolf.

Me.

And that was the part I refused to think too hard about-not when I could still feel the ghost of her desire from last night bleeding through the weakened bond. The small pulse of pleasure that wasn’t meant for me.

I burned with jealousy so fierce it made my jaw ache.

But I shoved the feeling aside. Not here. Not now.

The Council woman led us to a massive set of double doors carved from blackened stone, etched with ancient runes that

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18:46 Tue, Dec 23 MJM.

Chapter 92

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pulsed faintly under the dim lights. Even 1-someone raised in power and ritual-had never stepped foot beyon i this point.

“This way,” she said softly, as though she feared waking something sleeping behind the walls.

The doors swung open, and we stepped into a cavernous room that breathed history.

The ceiling rose in a sweeping dome, glowing with silver patterns that twisted into constellations, wolves and moons carved into spirals that seemed to move if you stared too long.

Maya stared upward, breath catching. She wasn’t awed often, but I saw it now… the wonder, the confusion and the slight

dread.

I had been to the First Packland’s Council building dozens of times for negotiations. politics and briefings I barely had any interest in. Hell, I was even apart of a team that broke in to save Maya a few months ago.

But I have never been this chamber. Never the place they reserved for the rare, the powerful, the dangerous.

Ten stone chairs sat on a raised dais like a throne circle. Ten robed figures sat unmoving with their head bowed, like some creepy, ceremonial pose for when someone entered. Their silence was heavy enough to press against my lungs.

Then they rose.

One by one in precise, ritualistic power.

Their hoods dropped slowly, revealing faces I knew and hated, like the ones who confronted us after attempting to save Maya. Some I recognized elsewhere but never knew they were actually apart of the council. And some were faces I never expected to see standing before those chairs.

Maya stiffened, instinctively pressing closer. I placed a steadying hand on her waist. It was meant to reassure her, but the moment my fingers brushed her skin, something hot and electric raced up my arm again. Gosh I wanted her, and this was not the time for wanting her.

The robed councilors finished lowering their hoods, but one movement on the far left carved the breath from my chest.

Philip Nightshade straightened with a smug, venomous stare fixed directly on Maya, as if she was a stain he wished he could scrub off the world. Rage ricocheted through me in a way that felt bone-deep.

I didn’t look at Maya… I couldn’t. The hatred in Philip’s eyes was enough to set every protective instinct roaring through me.

It all made sense now. Of course he had a seat on the Council. That two-timing, egoistic, spiteful bastard. I knew that Maya’s abduction only moments after escaping his death sentence wasn’t coincidental. But I had no idea he was actually on he council.

Did Caden know? Did he hide this from me? One look in Maya’s direction told me she didn’t know either. And if Caden didn’t tell her, it simply meant he was keeping things from her, or he too, didn’t know.

How would he feel to know this? How could his father had kept this from him for so long?

But then another hood fell two seats down, and my blood turned ice.

My fists curled hard enough that my knuckles strained.

My father.

Standing among them.

And he looked just as shocked to see me as I was to see him.