The Messenger( Iva) novel Chapter 257

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Lori’s head dropped.

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Sadness washed over her not for herself, but for him. For the family that had pushed him away when he needed them most. For the years he had spent carrying the weight of their disappointment.

She took a long, shaky breath.

Attia misinterpreted her silence.

“Don’t be sad, angel,” he said, tilting her chin up with his finger. “Monica’is nothing. I told you-”

Lori shook her head.

“It’s not about Monica.”

Attia’s brow furrowed.

“Then what?”

Lori pulled back from his embrace.

Her heart was pounding. Her hands were trembling. But she had to tell him. Had to trust him. Had to let

him in.

“My mother called me this morning,” she said.

She told him everything.

The Alpha’s plans. The arranged mating. The way her parents were trapped, unable to protect her, unable to even warn her without risking punishment. She told him about the pack’s decline-the dwindling numbers, the desperate measures, the slow collapse that had driven the Alpha to break the most sacred laws of their kind.

By the time she finished, Attia was shaking.

Not with fear.

With rage.

His hands were clenched at his sides. His jaw was tight enough to crack teeth. His eyes-those dark, beautiful eyes-burned with a fury that made Lori’s wolf whimper and submit.

“The Alpha,” Attia said, his voice barely controlled. “He is forcing matings? Arranging chosen bonds without consent?”

Lori nodded.

“He is trying to sell you like cattle?”

Another nod.

Attia turned away from her.

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He walked to the window, his broad back rigid, his shoulders tight. She could see the battle raging inside him-the discipline fighting the instinct, the headmaster fighting the wolf.

“I need to go there,” he said, his voice low. “Now. I need to break his neck.”

“Attia-”

“He is threatening you. Threatening your family. Threatening everything that is mine.”

He turned to face her, and his expression was terrible-a mask of cold fury that made her blood run cold.

“If he touches you-if he so much as looks at you with intent-I will tear him apart. I will tear his pack apart. I will burn it all to the ground.”

Lori crossed the room and took his hands.

His fingers were ice.

“Attia,” she said softly. “Look at me.”

His eyes met hers.

“I need you to breathe,” she said. “I need you to think. If you go there now-if you attack the Alpha-you will start a war. People will die. Innocent people. My parents.”

Attia’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t argue.

“I’m not saying we do nothing,” Lori continued. “I’m saying we need to be smart. We need to have a plan. We need to protect my pack-not destroy it.”

Attia was silent for a long moment.

Then he pulled her into his arms.

“I’m sorry,” he said into her hair. “You’re right. I know you’re right. But the thought of someone trying to take you from me…” He shuddered. “I cannot bear it.”

Lori pressed her face against his chest.

“Then don’t let them,” she said. “Protect me. Protect my family. But do it the right way.”

Attia held her tighter.

“The ceremony,” he said slowly. “Iva’s ceremony. At the royal castle.”

Lori looked up. “What about it?”

“If we announce our bond there-publicly, in front of the highest powers in the kingdom-your Alpha cannot touch you. A fated bond supersedes any political arrangement. It’s the law.”

Lori’s heart leaped.

“You would do that? Announce us? Already?”

Attia cupped her face in his hands.

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