Chapter 449: Blood is thinner 3
CIAN
I watched Dimitri’s eyes shift. Just a flick of movent, quick, and seemingly just as calculating, toward the car behind . He caught himself fast and pulled his gaze back to mine as if nothing had happened, but I had already seen it.
I stepped to the left. Subtle. Yet just enough to cut off his line of sight.
"Why?" I asked.
The word ca out flat. I left no room for interpretation.
Dimitri held my stare. His expression stayed neutral, almost pleasant, which made my skin crawl. n like him never showed up in foreign territory with polite intentions and empty hands. They ca with agendas, hidden knives, and calculated risks.
"If I tell you," he said slowly, "will you bring her over?"
The phrasing landed wrong.
"She must be in that car, right?"
My jaw locked.
The bond pulled tight in my chest. Fia’s discomfort bled through the connection like a cold wind cutting straight to bone. I could feel her tension, the way her breathing had changed, the subtle spike of alarm she tried to smother before it reached
fully.
She knew sothing.
Or she suspected sothing.
Either way, whatever Dimitri wanted with her, it made her deeply uneasy. That alone told
everything I needed to know about how this conversation would end.
I took a single step forward. I tried not to let my aggressive streak show. I let my need bleed just enough to make the distance between us smaller and remind him whose territory he stood on, whose wolves surrounded him, whose rcy he heavily relied on to leave here breathing.
"No."
Dimitri blinked. "No?"
"I do not know what this is for," I said. "I do not care why you think you need to speak to my Luna. But you will not get near her. We are done here."
His jaw shifted. A muscle jumped near his temple.
I kept going. The words felt good leaving my mouth, solid and unshakable.
"I was polite to let you in. I gave you an audience. That courtesy has reached its limit."
I paused, letting the silence stretch just long enough to make him uncomfortable.
"I am even willing to let go of the pure arrogance Northern Ridge’s Nocturne had circling Skollrend before you bothered to announce yourself."
Dimitri opened his mouth. I did not let him speak.
"Let
tell you a secret."
His eyes narrowed.
"If your intention is to pick a fight now because I refused you, let
tell you a little secret about Skollrend." I smiled. It felt sharp on my face, predatory in a way I rarely allowed myself to indulge. "I had mourning moon planted in the forests surrounding our territories."
The words hit exactly the way I wanted them to. Dimitri went very still. The kind of stillness that ca from a predator realizing it had walked into a trap.
"The sentinels you sent to corner our asses just in case?" I continued, my voice dropping lower. "They are probably foaming at the mouth right now. Dying slowly. And turning into fertilizer for those plants."
I took another step closer. I was close enough now that I could see the exact mont his pupils dilated, the way his breathing changed rhythm.
"The audacity a pack like yours has." I shook my head slowly. "Give
an excuse to co at you. Please. After what you helped Aldric do to my father..."
I leaned in, just a fraction, just enough.
"I am begging you to push ."
Dimitri’s eyes went wide.
The reaction satisfied sothing dark and hungry in my chest. I watched recognition flood his face, watched him realize I knew more than he thought I did, watched him recalculate every assumption he had walked in here with.
"That is right," I said softly. "I know."
The air between us thickened.
"And I intend to get my pound of flesh in due ti."
For a long mont, Dimitri said nothing. He just stared at
like he was seeing
for the first ti, like the version of
he had expected to find here did not match the one standing in front of him.
Then he exhaled slowly.
"The past is in the past."
I almost laughed. Almost. The sheer audacity of that statent coming from him, standing on my territory, asking for access to my mate, after everything his pack had done to this pack.
"If you truly want to know why I am here," Dimitri continued, his voice careful now, asured, "I have no problem speaking."
I waited.
He t my eyes directly.
"Your Luna is my granddaughter. Will you deny
access to my family?"
The words did not settle in my head at once. They struck and hovered there, refusing to sink into place. For a mont, all I heard was his voice, steady and deliberate, carrying a aning my mind resisted. Then it clicked, slow and unwelco, and sothing inside
turned.
Granddaughter.
He was reaching for sothing that did not belong to him. Dressing it up as blood. Using the thin connection his daughter once had to Fia and stretching it into a claim.
The anger ca all at once. It spread through
in a rush that left no space for restraint. My body moved before I could stop it.
My hand caught the front of Dimitri’s shirt and twisted tight. The fabric strained under my grip as I dragged him forward, forcing him off balance until he stood close enough for
to see every shift in his expression.
"What did you say?"
My voice ca out low and rough, held together by effort alone.
He did not resist. He did not reach for my wrist or attempt to break free. He allowed it, standing there as though the tension between us did not exist.
His wolves did not share his restraint.
I heard them shift. Boots pressed into the ground. Bodies adjusted. A low warning rose from their chests, quiet but present. They waited for a signal that had not yet co.
Our sentinels answered without hesitation. The space around us tightened. The air grew heavy with intent, balanced on the edge of sothing that could turn at any mont.
No one moved fully. Not yet.
Then the car door opened behind .
The sound cut through the standoff.
"Fia, stay inside."
I kept my eyes on Dimitri. My grip did not loosen. I pushed the command through the bond with force, leaving no room for doubt.
For her to stay. For her to trust .
She however, ignored it.
Her footsteps reached
before her presence did. Each step carried her closer despite everything I had tried to hold in place.
Sothing in my chest pulled tight.
"Fia."
Her na broke from
without control this ti.
It still did not cause her to stop.
The bond shifted before she ca into view. It stretched and thrumd with her resolve, firm and unwavering. I felt it as clearly as my own breath.
Then she stepped into my sight.
I caught the movent first. Then her form. Her chin lifted and her shoulders set. She moved with a quiet steadiness that masked everything beneath it.
I knew better than to trust that calm.
Dimitri went rigid in my hold.
It was not controlled stillness. It was shock.
I turned my head just enough to see her face. Her expression held nothing. She was too composed. I knew what it cost her to stand there that way. Even if I did not fully understand what was going on with her and
When I faced him again, his composure had broken.
He stared at her as though she should not exist in front of him. His eyes fixed on her with a disbelief he did not attempt to hide.
"We et again."
His voice had changed. It carried strain now, sothing uneven beneath the words.
My grip tightened.
"What?"
But neither of them looked at .
Fia’s jaw clenched. Her hands curled into fists at her sides, tight enough that I could see her knuckles go white even from here.
"What do you want?" she asked.
The question landed cold. Empty of everything except the barest edge of hostility.
Dimitri swallowed hard. I watched his throat work, watched him try to gather himself, to find whatever composure he had walked in here with. It took him longer than it should have. Longer than a man like him would normally allow himself.
When he finally spoke again, his voice had steadied, but sothing in it had changed.
"Do you know who your grandmother was?"
The question hung in the air between all of us.
Fia went very, very still.
I felt it through the bond. The way everything in her locked down at once. The way her breathing stopped, her heartbeat stuttered, the way shock and recognition and sothing darker all crashed together inside her chest.
My hand loosened on Dimitri’s shirt without
consciously deciding to release him.
"What?" I asked again.
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