Chapter 445: Unravel 2
HAZEL
Lysander finally moved. He stepped into the room and closed the door behind him.
"Father," he said. "This is unnecessary."
Did Lysander just defend ?
Wenzel did not look at him. He kept his eyes trained on
as he waited for a response.
"What conversation?" I finally asked.
Wenzel smiled then. "You see, Lysander? Even she understands the necessity of this. You’re a smart girl, Hazel. Resourceful. Adaptable. That’s what your grandmother said about you, and I believe her."
He stood and smoothed down the front of his shirt. When he looked at
again. His features were harder as he spoke.
"It is not about the conversation. I frankly do not give a damn what you girls talk about. He says, but your conversation has to be sothing that will tear her away from Skollrend. For a very short ti. I’ll give you ti to think about it. But not too much ti. The heat season is coming, and once that starts, everyone will be too distracted to focus on anything else. I need your answer before then."
He walked toward the door. Lysander stepped aside to let him pass.
Wenzel paused at the threshold and looked back at .
"A few hours, Hazel. That’s all the ti you have."
Then he left.
The door closed behind him, and the silence that followed was suffocating.
I stared at the empty chair where Wenzel had been sitting. My hands were shaking again. I pressed them flat against the table to stop the tremor.
Lysander still stood by the door. He had not moved. He had not spoken.
I looked at him.
"Are you going to say sothing?" I asked.
He t my eyes. For a mont, I thought I saw sothing there. Regret maybe. Or anger. But it was gone before I could na it.
"What do you want
to say?"
"I don’t know. Anything. Sothing."
He shook his head.
"There’s nothing to say."
"Your father just asked
to spy on my sister. On the Luna of Skollrend. The woman you have obsessed over. And you think there’s nothing to say?"
All I was soing and saying was all to save my neck because this would never end well for . It was like being stuck between a rock and a hard place.
It hurt that Lysander’s expression did not change.
"What I think doesn’t matter. What he wants is what matters."
"That’s it? That’s all you have?"
He looked away.
"If you want advice, you should do what he asks."
The words hit
like a slap.
I stood. My chair scraped against the floor.
"You’re serious."
"I’m practical."
"You’re a coward."
Lysander flinched. It was subtle, but I saw it.
"Believe what you want," he said. "But if you refuse him, it won’t end well for you. And I can’t protect you from that."
"I’m not asking you to protect ."
"Good. Because I wouldn’t even if you did."
A sharp, bitter laugh tore out of
before I could stop it.
"Of course you wouldn’t," I said. "That would require you to actually stand for sothing."
His jaw tightened, but he didn’t respond. He just stood there, shoulders rigid, like if he stayed still enough, none of this would touch him.
I took a step closer.
"Tell
sothing, Lysander," I said, my voice lower now, steadier. "All those years. All that obsession. All that... whatever you want to call it. Did it an anything at all?"
His gaze flickered, just for a second.
That was enough.
"You loved her," I pressed. "Everyone knows it. Even ... The new one in this space and your supposed bride-to-be. You didn’t even try to hide it. You looked at her like she was the only thing in the world that made sense to you."
He inhaled slowly, like he was bracing himself.
"And now?" I continued. "Now your father is planning sothing against her, sothing you know is bad enough to ’reshape the fucking political landscape,’ and you’re just... standing here?"
All I got back was silence. But I had played these cards before. I was getting sowhere.
"Say it," I snapped. "Say you’re going to let it happen."
His eyes snapped back to mine.
"I never said that."
"No," I said, shaking my head. "You didn’t have to. It’s written all over you."
I stepped even closer, until there was barely any space between us.
"You’re going to let him use ," I said. "You’re going to let him drag
into whatever this is, and you’re going to stand there and watch. Just like you always do. Despite the one woman you claim to love being involved in this. I know you don’t care for . But her?"
"That’s not—"
"It is," I cut in. "Because if you actually cared about her, if any part of what you felt was real, you wouldn’t be this calm right now."
That did it.
Sothing cracked.
Lysander moved suddenly, closing the distance between us in a single step. His hand ca up, gripping my arm, not hard enough to hurt but firm enough to stop
from pulling away.
"Don’t," he said quietly.
But there was sothing in his voice now. Sothing raw.
"Don’t what?" I challenged. "Don’t say the truth?"
"You don’t know what you’re talking about."
"Then explain it to ."
His grip tightened for a fraction of a second before he let go, like he caught himself.
"I said," he repeated, slower this ti, "you don’t know what you’re talking about."
"Then make
understand," I said. "Because from where I’m standing, it looks like you’re about to let your father destroy the woman you claim to—"
"Enough."
The word ca out sharp.
For a mont, neither of us moved.
Then he ran a hand through his hair and turned away from , pacing once across the room before stopping near the window.
"I would never let harm befall her," he said.
His voice was quieter now, but steadier. Controlled.
"Never."
I stared at his back.
"Really?" I said. "Because this looks a lot like you letting harm walk right through the front door."
He turned back to .
"You think I don’t know what my father is capable of?" he asked. "You think I haven’t spent my entire life watching him do exactly what he just threatened to do?"
"Then stop him."
"It’s not that simple."
"It never is, is it?" I shot back.
His expression hardened again, that wall sliding back into place.
"You want to survive this?" he asked. "Then you’ll stop thinking in terms of right and wrong and start thinking in terms of outcos."
"Don’t talk to
like I’m one of your pawns."
"Then stop acting like you have the luxury of principles. We both know you lack it."
The words landed heavy.
I clenched my jaw.
"What do you plan to do?" I asked.
That was the real question. The only one that mattered.
For a second, sothing flickered across his face again. Conflict. Calculation. Sothing deeper that he was trying very hard to bury.
I reached for him without thinking, my hand catching his wrist.
"Lysander."
He stilled.
"Tell ," I said, quieter now. "Because if you’re not going to stop him, then what are you doing?"
For a brief mont, it felt like he might actually answer.
Like he might let
in on whatever was going on behind that carefully controlled expression.
Then he pulled his hand out of my grip.
"Find your own salvation, Hazel," he said.
The words were cold and the finality in them made
sick.
Sothing in my chest twisted.
"What?"
He stepped back, putting distance between us like it ant sothing.
"Because in the grand sche of things," he continued, "this does not end well for you."
A chill ran down my spine.
"What does that an?"
He didn’t answer imdiately. His gaze moved over , like he was weighing sothing, asuring sothing I couldn’t see.
Then he spoke.
"Just make sure," he said, "that you aren’t the one scheming right now."
My stomach dropped.
"What are you—"
But he was already turning away.
"Lysander."
He didn’t stop.
"Lysander, what does that an?" I demanded.
His hand reached the door.
For a second, I thought he might hesitate.
He didn’t.
He opened it.
"Lysander!!!!"
He stepped through and shut it behind him without looking back.
The sound of the door clicking into place echoed through the room.
I stood there, staring at the closed door, my heart hamring against my ribs.
Just make sure you aren’t the one scheming right now.
What did that an?
Was it a warning? A threat?
Or worse... was it both?
I pressed my palms against the table again, trying to steady myself. My thoughts were racing too fast to catch. Too many variables. Too many unknowns.
Wenzel wanted
to lure Fia away from Skollrend. A few hours. That’s all I had. And Lysander—
Lysander knew sothing.
He’d practically admitted it with that last cryptic line. He wasn’t going to stop his father. But he wasn’t going to help him either. He was doing sothing else. Sothing in between.
I hated that I couldn’t figure out what.
I hated even more that part of
wanted to trust him.
Stupid. So incredibly stupid.
I sank back into the chair and dropped my head into my hands.
Think, Hazel. Think.
If I refused Wenzel, I was dead. Or worse. He’d made that clear enough. But if I did what he asked, if I called Fia and got her to leave Skollrend, even for a few hours—
What would happen to her?
What would happen to
when her Alpha found out? Especially if there was a chance that sothing could indeed happen to her.
Why was Wenzel suddenly invested in the girl?
I thought about her husband again and how he had roughed
up in the bathroom of Alpha Julius Knight.
I was a Luna then and it had been brutal... As an Oga now... I would be finished.
So the fear that her mate would find out scared
the most... Not even the possibility that it would be near impossible for
of all people to get Fia to let her guard down.
Because if he found out... And when he did... There would be no rcy.
Not for soone like .
I exhaled slowly, trying to calm the panic clawing at my throat.
There had to be another way. There had to be sothing I could do that wouldn’t end with
dead or worse.
But the longer I sat there, the more I realized the truth.
There wasn’t.
Wenzel had boxed
in completely.
And Lysander—Lysander had just walked away and left
here to drown.
I lifted my head and stared at the door again.
Just make sure you aren’t the one scheming right now.
My hands curled into fists.
Fuck that.
Scheming was my forte, and I needed to save my fucking neck. If grandmother and ti were not going to save
this ti around, I needed to be my own salvation.
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