Rise Of A Shattered Luna (Natalie) by Kave Derry novel Chapter 53

Chapter 53 The Price Of A Memory

Chapter 53 The Price Of A Memory

Baron’s POV

I sat back in the high chair, the silver mask hiding the predatory grin stretching across my face.

“Tell me,” I said, my voice a distorted, mocking rattle through the shifter. “What do you think was her most precious possession back then?”

Jensen’s eyes darken as his Alpha aura intensified. I didn’t flinch, I let my own gaze match his.

My attendant instinctively took a step back, his scent spiking with the fear. He was smart; when two Alphas collide in a space this small, the walls tend to bleed.

Jensen yanked his hands from the basin, the water splashed over the marble floor, but he didn’t care.

He took two long, aggressive strides toward me, his aura flaring, but I didn’t stop him. The drug was already in his system, burrowing deep into his nerves.

For the next two months, I could guarantee that Jensen would wake up every morning feeling as though his bones were being crushed by a hydraulic press.

A gift from the “Witch Doctor.”

Jensen’s teeth were gritted so hard I could hear the enamel groan. “Witch Doctor, everyone says you act with integrity. Since you accepted something from Natalie back then, there’s no reason you can’t tell me what it was, is there?”

“Don’t butter me up,” I countered, my voice dripping with disdain. “Integrity is a lux serve for people I actually respect. But

what Natalie gave up? Yeah. It was precious. I still remember the way she looked when she handed it over. I remember it clearly after all these years.”

“You bastard!”

He snapped and lunged, a powerful punch aimed straight at my mask. He wanted to shatter the silver and find the man underneath.

My eyes narrowed, and in a fluid motion, the scalpel that had been twirling in my fingers became a silver streak of light.

He ducked; the blade grazed the top of his scalp, a fraction of an inch from opening his skull, and embedded itself four inches deep into the reinforced wall behind him with a violent, vibrating clang.

Jensen froze as he looked at the blade, then back at me, his eyes burning with a mixture of shock and fury. He realized then that! hadn’t been playing and I had thrown that blade to kill.

I rose from my seat. “You dare raise a hand in Hades Pharmacy? Jensen, have you truly thought about how you plan to leave the Labyrinth alive? My guards don’t care about your title, they only care about the mess you’ll leave on my floor.”

Jensen’s face twisted; he looked like he wanted to scream but kept the rage in check.

“I came here today to ask about Natalie,” he said, his voice a hoarse rasp.

“This is a clinic, not a gossip booth,” I replied coldly, smoothing the front of my coat. “If you’re looking for information, go buy it from one of the vultures in the stalls outside. Though… I heard your darling wife Sharon lost her wolf. Isn’t that why you came

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Chapter 53 The Price Of A Memory

today? To play the hero for the woman who replaced the one you lost?”

I watched him closely, hoping for a flicker of the old Jensen–the one who would burn the world for Sharon. I wanted him to prove he was exactly the shallow, treacherous dog I believed him to be.

But Jensen simply stared at me, his eyes hollow. “She brought that on herself. It’s what she deserves for what she did to Natalie. I’m not here for her. If you can’t give me the information I need, I won’t waste your time.”

My expression soured behind the mask. Who was he putting on this show for? Me? Natalie?

Just as I was about to dismiss him, the door to the inner sanctum opened. One of my men entered, walking straight to me.

He announced, “Witch Doctor, Ms. Summers is in trouble.”

Jensen turned like a bolt of lightning, his eyes locking on mine. “What did he just say? Who’s in trouble?”

I felt a surge of cold fury. I turned a gaze on the guard that made him visibly recoil as if I’d struck him. “Leaking a patient’s information is a punishable offense… go downstairs and take your punishment. Now”

“Yes, sir,” the guard stammered, fleeing the room before I could change my mind about letting him live.

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I turned back to Jensen, whose brow was furrowed in confusion. Ms. Summers. He had heard it. But I kept my expression a mask of

stone.

“Ms. Sarah,” I corrected, my voice a low, dangerous growl. “Ms. Sarah’s surgery site is infected, her condition is critical. Now, unless you have more blood to spill, get out of my sight.”

Jensen stood there for a long moment. I could see the gears turning: he looked at

fire in him dimmed. He looked defeated.

職員

The moment the door clicked shut behind Jensen, I ripped the silver mask off my face.

My skin was hot.

then at the empty doorway, and finally, the

“Prepare the helicopter,” I snapped at the attendant. “I need to return to the pack immediately… Natalie is waiting.”

“Yes, sir.”

I pulled out my phone and dialed a secure line to the team I’d left. “Find a way to make Sharon and Jensen consummate their marriage,” I ordered.

“Use whatever drug you need, then leak it. I want the whole world to see the happy couple. I want the name Luna tied to Sharon Summers so tightly that Natalie can never be associated with it again.”

If Jensen had hurt Natalie for Sharon’s sake, I would make sure he was shackled to that woman forever.

I turned to the shop attendant. “Tell the gossip vendor, Kelvin, to keep his mouth shut. If a single word about Natalie’s presence in this market leaks, tell him he can pick out a grave by sunset.”

I didn’t wait for a reply; I strode toward the back of the clinic, toward the private airstrip hidden beneath the warehouse. I had to get back; Natalie’s infection was a lie I’d told Jensen, but the need to see her was real.

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11:13 am M

Chapter 54 Forbidden Authority

Chapter 54 Forbidden Authority

Baron’s POV

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I sat in the darkened cabin, the only light coming from the glowing console beside me. My knuckles were bruised, a dull ache that feit better than any drug.

I looked down at my hands, remembering the way Jensen’s face had felt under them.

“He didn’t even recognize us,” Raze purred in the back of my mind, his amber eyes glowing in the mental dark. “The great Alpha Jensen, whimpering in the dirt like a discarded pup.”

I had enjoyed it–every violent second; calling him an “idiot” while he thrashed in that sack was the most honest thing I’d said in five years.

But more than the beating, I felt the weight of the silver cufflinks now fastened to my own sleeves. I traced the wolf’s eye design. I had stripped them off his wrist with a sneer, reclaiming the art that never belonged to him.

Natalie’s soul was etched into this silver, and I wasn’t letting a man who let her burn touch it ever again.

But as the jet touched down in

pack and the wheels screeched against the tarmac, my phone buzzed.

Natalie’s vitals were spiking.

By the time the car pulled up to the pack house, I was already moving. I didn’t wait for the guards to open the door; I strode through the entrance.

I walked straight into the recovery wing. Yvonne was there, but she wasn’t at the monitors.

She was standing by the bed, her face a mask of pale exhaustion. My expression

darkened.

“Yvonne,” I said, my voice a low–frequency hum. “Before I left for the black market, did I not give you one singular command? Take. Care. Of. Natalie.”

T

The temperature in the room plummeted. Yvonne, usually a form of calm and composure, didn’t offer a single word of defense.

She knew the rules… she dropped to her knees on the polished floor, her head bowed, her shoulders trembling.

Finn stepped forward from the shadows of the corner.

He was my beta and the closest thing I had to a brother.

“Baron, stop,” Finn said, his posture defensive. “This isn’t Yvonne’s fault. She had just received Phantom’s ashes–her own sister, Baron. She went to bury her, she’d arranged for a rotation of nurses to keep an eye on Natalie. But Natalie… she’s stubborn. She insisted on getting out of bed while the fever was high, and that’s what caused the infection to flare. Our staff can’t be expected to wrestle a patient; even ICU patients have to take some responsibility for their own recovery, don’t they?”

Finn spoke with a casual tone; he didn’t see Natalie the way I did. He just saw a woman I saved, and that was all.

He didn’t see what I saw.

Before he could finish the syllable of his last word, my hand shot out.

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11:13 am M

Chapter 54 Forbidden Authority

CRACK.

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The sound of the slap was like a bone breaking in a silent room. It was fast, violent, and absolute.

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