Lethal Temptation (by Michelle Ray) novel Chapter 23

23 Breakfast Scene

Mara

Lucian opened the envelope.

Inside were photographs–me and Darian. At a café. Walking side by side after training. Sitting too

close during lunch. All innocent moments, all taken out of context. Rowan had been there every

time, but he was conveniently cropped out or blurred.

They’d made it look like something it wasn’t. Like something ugly.

And then-

My breath caught.

A pair of white panties fell out onto the table.

Lucian’s jaw clenched. Darian looked like he might pass out.

“This,” Alpha Vander said, voice cold and controlled, “was found in Darian’s pocket during laundry.”

His glare moved to his younger son, boiling with restrained rage.

“Father, this isn’t-” Darian tried.

“Enough!” Alpha Vander roared, cutting him off.

He turned to Lucian, his face like stone. “If I knew she was a slut, I never would’ve bought her for

you.”

Silence slammed into the room.

“Feel free to annul the marriage,” he went on, voice rising, “so I can cast her out. Her and her pathetic middle–class parents. She is shameless, a disgrace to this family. Sleeping with your husband’s brother–what kind of filth is that?”

He turned his glare on me. “If you get pregnant, know that you’ll abort it. I won’t have that bastard

here.”

Something broke in me.

I started laughing.

Not because it was funny–but because I couldn’t process it. It was a kind of madness, sharp and breathless. The kind that comes when your body can’t figure out whether to scream or collapse.

Lucian’s voice echoed in my head, linking to me with irritation. “Mara, you need to stop laughing.”

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* 23 Breakfast Scene

If only he’d looked at me. If only he saw my face.

I wasn’t just laughing. I was crying too.

I wasn’t okay.

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My eyes were locked on Martha. The mastermind behind it all. She stared back with the same

cold, passive expression. Not smug. Not ashamed. Just blank. Like ruining people’s lives was her

version of housework.

She wanted me out of Darian’s life. Fine.

She got what she wanted.

“You might’ve finished second place at the academy,” Alpha Vander continued, “but you will not be Gamma. I won’t let you pursue your twisted desires any further. The Northwoods are essential to this pack, and their daughter will be Darian’s wife.”

He paused, as if savoring it. “You won’t be allowed to create trouble for us again.”

And there it was.

My life. My training. My position. My reputation.

Destroyed over a staged photo and a planted pair of panties.

All because I dared to exist where Martha didn’t want me.

I was laughing.

Tears streamed down my cheeks, but I couldn’t stop. The sound that came from me was

somewhere between a sob and a gasp–a nervous breakdown in slow motion.

I looked at Darian.

He was arguing with his father, voice raised, hands gesturing, but I couldn’t hear him. It all sounded like noise. Like static. I felt hollow. Like something inside me had been scraped clean.

They really did it.

They took it from me.

Everything I’d worked for–months of training, discipline, sacrifice–all of it gone. Not because I failed. Not because I was unworthy. But because someone decided I didn’t belong.

I forced my voice through the mess in my throat.

“Alpha… these are lies,” I said, quietly but clearly. “I worked hard for that position. Please- investigate this. How could I be sleeping with Darian? I–I’m…”

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23 Breakfast Scene

I stopped.

I couldn’t say it.

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I wanted to tell him I was a virgin. That I’d never so much as kissed another man besides those few

stolen seconds with Darian. But Alpha Vander didn’t care.

He didn’t even let me finish.

“Enough!” he barked. “Leave this wing. Whatever your husband chooses to do is none of my

concern. But once you’re out of this house, you and your family no longer belong to this pack.”

That was it.

Judgment delivered.

My legs trembled, and I began to cry–silently at first, then with full, shaking sobs. I wasn’t just being humiliated–I was being erased.

“Father, please,” Lucian’s voice came, sudden and strained. “Let her keep the Gamma position. I’ll make sure she doesn’t come near this wing again. But don’t take that from her.”

It hit me like a punch.

He believed them too.

He thought the pictures were real.

He was only asking for mercy–not because he believed I was innocent, but because… what? He

pitied me?

Alpha Vander stared at him for a long moment, then gave a dismissive nod.

“Very well. But if anything happens between Darian and her again…” he looked sharply at Lucian,”

you’d better be ready to clean up the mess.”

Lucian said nothing.

He stood, grabbed the envelope off the table–the photos, the panties–and clenched it in his hand.

Then he grabbed me by the arm, firm and fast.

“Let’s go,” he muttered.

His grip was tight, not painful, but unyielding. Like I was something he had to get out of the room before I broke apart completely.

And maybe I already had.

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