Chapter 55
1061 Words
Third Person POV
Moonlight spilled softly through the wide windows of the suite, casting a silvery glow across the tangled sheets and sleeping forms. Gwen lay nestled between her three mates, their limbs instinctively curled around her, a fortress of warmth and breath and bond.
Cain was awake, his chest rising and falling slowly as he watched the gentle furrow in Gwen’s brow. She looked peaceful, but Cain had learned to read her—small tells, little signs.
Her foot twitched under the blanket. Her fingers clenched around the pillow.
Then the nightmare came.
“No… no, Justin—please don’t…”
Gwen thrashed suddenly, her body jerking so hard that Cain’s protective hold faltered. Her eyes fluttered behind closed lids, and then a piercing scream tore from her throat.
“JUSTIN!”
Cain grabbed her shoulders. “Gwen—Gwen, wake up, it’s okay. It’s just a dream.”
Cole sat up fast, rubbing the sleep from his eyes before leaning over her. “What the hell—?”
Cash’s arm was already around her waist, holding her still as she writhed. “Gwen, it’s us. It’s your mates. You’re safe.”
It took another few seconds, but her eyes finally flew open, wet with tears, her breathing ragged and loud in the quiet room.
She looked from Cain to Cole to Cash and then collapsed forward, sobbing into Cain’s chest.
“I—I thought he was going to hurt me again,” she whispered. “I couldn’t stop him…”
All three brothers surrounded her in an instant, whispering reassurances and smoothing her hair, arms wrapped around her in layers. There was no jealousy in that moment, no possessiveness—just shared grief. Shared love.
Third Person POV
Terrance crouched beneath the tangled roots of a fallen tree, watching the wind blow dried leaves across the snow-covered ground. The cold had numbed his fingers, but it was guilt that had kept him frozen in place.
He should’ve come sooner.
But crossing into Capital City Pack territory meant death. He knew that. They would drag him before the Alpha and execute him without question. But maybe… maybe Gwen was worth it.
She had to know the truth.
He closed his eyes and was pulled back—twenty one years ago.
Aurora had come to him in a fury, red hair wild, a sleeping Gwen strapped to her chest and a bundle of damning papers clutched in her hand. “It’s not just rumors,” she’d whispered. “Karl is selling Omegas. Gwen is going to grow up in a world where this is normal unless we stop it.”
They’d confronted Karl together.
But Terrance hadn’t expected what came next.
Karl didn’t yell. He smiled.
Two guards grabbed Aurora. Terrance tried to fight—he really did—but Karl’s warriors tackled him. Karl had simply said:
“She’ll live. As long as you behave.”
That night, he’d sat in a dark cell, listening to Aurora’s screams echo down the stone hall. He never saw her again.
And Gwen… Gwen grew up thinking her mother had died in childbirth.
Terrance rubbed a hand over his face and looked toward the pack lights in the distance. “I’ll die for this,” he whispered to the trees. “But she deserves to know who she is.”
He stood, shaking from more than cold, and took the first step home.
Terrance didn’t make it past the outer patrol line before they found him.
Three wolves—Capital City enforcers—surrounded him before he could shift or speak. He raised his hands slowly, showing no threat, only weariness.
“I’m here to surrender,” he rasped. “Take me to Cain, Cole, and Cash. Tell them it’s about Gwen.”
The patrol captain narrowed his eyes but gave a sharp nod. They shifted to human form and escorted Terrance, shackled and barefoot, through the snow-covered woods and back to the heart of the pack.
They brought him not to the holding cells—but directly to the Alpha Suite.
Cain stood by the door when they arrived. He looked deadly calm, but his eyes flickered when he saw who it was. Cole and Cash were behind him, tense but confused.
Cain stepped forward slowly, his voice low. “Why the hell are you here?”
“I know I’m not welcome,” Terrance said. “But Gwen is in danger, and I’m the only one who knows the whole truth.”
Cash moved in an instant, slamming him back against the wall with a growl. “You helped Karl keep those Omegas. You worked for him.”
“I did. And I’ll burn for it.” Terrance didn’t fight the pressure on his throat. “But not before I tell Gwen what he did to her mother.”
That made all three of them freeze.
Cole stepped forward. “Her mother? You mean the woman who died in childbirth?”
Terrance’s eyes filled. “That’s the lie we told. The lie I helped keep. Her mother’s alive. Karl took her when Gwen was still a baby.”
Cain’s voice dropped to a whisper. “What are you saying?”
“She found out about the brothels. She confronted Karl. He silenced her by imprisoning her… and threatened to kill her if I didn’t obey. He used her to keep me loyal.” Terrance’s voice broke. “And I let him.”
Cash finally let go of him.
Cole’s voice was shaking. “Where is she?”
Terrance swallowed. “I don’t know. The last I heard, she was being held underground in Karl’s private estate, but he fled that after the wedding failed. But Karl’s cunnig. He won't let this go—and if Gwen doesn’t know, she’s going to walk straight into his trap.”
Cain turned to his brothers. “We need to talk to Gwen. Now.”
“No,” Terrance said quickly. “Not yet. If she hears it from you, it’ll sound like you’re just trying to control her again.”
He looked directly at Cain, chest heaving. “Let me tell her the truth. Let me give her what was stolen from her.”
Cain’s fists clenched. “You betray her again, and I’ll kill you.”
Terrance nodded. “Fair.”
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