237 Beneath the Wolf’s Skin
Mara
“I love you, Vander,” Martha said, her voice barely more than a whisper. Her eyes, swollen and rimmed with red, searched his face for a glimmer of mercy. “But I won’t be mad if you want to end it.”
Vander didn’t speak. His silence was suffocating, but his restraint spoke volumes.
“My marriage to Alaric… it wasn’t consensual. I was shackled into it. And for years, I dreamt of a strong man-someone brave enough to pull me out of that nightmare.”
She took a shaky breath, fingers clutched tightly around the blanket on her lap.
“I know I’ve been difficult… unbearable, even. But it was jealousy, Vander. That’s all it ever was. Jealousy that your heart belonged elsewhere. But I never stopped loving you. And I love Lucian too. That’s why I could never do what Alaric asked. I would rather die than hurt either of you.”
She looked down, ashamed.
“My tantrums, the manipulations, the schemes… they were ugly, I know. But they came from pain. From feeling invisible.
I’m so sorry I lied to you.”
Still, Vander said nothing.
“I should leave,” she murmured, suddenly sitting up as if the shame was too thick to breathe in his presence.
“You can’t leave in this condition,” he said gently, the steadiness of his tone almost jarring after all that had been said.
“Then let me go to my room, at least.”
He didn’t argue. But he didn’t agree either. He just stood there-stone-faced, arms crossed, the storm in his heart hidden behind decades of practiced restraint.
That’s when the thought struck me.
“Martha,” I said, stepping closer, my voice soft but firm, “did you try to poison yourself?”
Her gaze shot to mine-wide, terrified.
She didn’t answer.
“Please,” I said gently. “Stop keeping pieces of this to yourself. You left notes for your children… said goodbye to everyone. And a staff member was poisoned too. We need to know what really happened.”
Her lip quivered. Then the tears came-thick, quiet tears that streaked down her cheeks like they’d been waiting years to
fall.
“I was going to leave, Mara,” she said finally. “For good. I had sold off everything I owned and split the money into three
parts-one for Darian, one for Lacy, and one for me.”
Her voice wavered as she continued. “I hired someone… an assassin. I do it every year. Pay someone to track Alaric down and end him. It never works. But this time… this one sounded sure. He said he knew where Alaric was. That he had a real
shot. I believed him.”
She stared into the distance, like she could still see the moment it all went wrong.
“I was saying goodbye because I believed it would finally be over. That I would finally be free. I told someone about my plan. I don’t know why-I just needed to say it out loud. But it was a mistake. A terrible one.”
1/3
I felt a chill spread through my chest. “He found out.”
She nodded. “The messages started coming in. Threats. Promises. Promises that he would come for me. And I knew he would. So I locked myself away. I was too scared to come out.”
“And the poisoning?” I asked quietly.
She broke down again, burying her face in her hands.
And in that moment, I understood.
This wasn’t just about betrayal. It wasn’t even just about survival.
Martha had been running from a ghost her whole life.
And now, it was finally catching up.
“So you chose to end it,” I said quietly, watching Martha closely.
She shook her head.
“I love Darian. Lacy. Emma…” Her voice trembled. “I want to live-for them.”
Then, softer, like a confession she barely wanted to speak aloud, she added, “Not really. I planned to run away.”
I stared at her, confused. “Then what happened, Martha? You had a lethal dose of silver in your blood. You were never allowed to leave the mansion, so someone brought it in. Someone tried to kill you.”
Her eyes shimmered, darting-dancing with pain, fear, and guilt.
She knew.
I could see it in the way her mouth opened slightly, then closed again. In the tremor of her hands. The guilt that clung to
her like a second skin. But she wouldn’t say it.
She was protecting someone.
Someone she loved more than her own life.
“Lacy,” I whispered, the name falling like a hammer into the room.
Her tears broke free again-silent but telling.
I stared at her, stunned. “She poisoned you…?”
“She’s confused,” Martha said quickly. “Angry. That’s all.”
But I was already piecing it together.
The way Lacy had lashed out. The envelope. The sudden silence. William-her loyal shadow-always one step behind her, always ready to erase what she didn’t want us to see. He must’ve brought the poison. He must’ve cleaned it up.
And she’d done it the same morning Chase’s forces attacked us.
I felt sick. Used. Foolish.
“Alaric is using her,” I said, the words sharp and cold. “He’s controlling her the same way he once controlled you.”
A terrible realization began to take shape in my mind. One that made my blood turn to ice.
What if Alaric was Chase?
I had to know.
“Martha,” I said gently, “I need you to identify someone. Truthfully. Can you do that?”
2/3
She looked at me, confused and wary, but nodded.
I pulled out my phone, opened the picture Lucian had sent me of Chase Nighthorn, and turned the screen toward her.
What followed was chaos.
Martha shrieked like a child waking from the worst nightmare. Her whole body trembled violently as she pointed a shaking finger at the screen.
“Monster!” she screamed. “Monster!”
Her voice cracked with horror. She recoiled, like the very image on the phone could hurt her. Vander rushed forward, wrapping his arms around her to hold her still as she sobbed and screamed and clawed at the sheets.
The terror in her was real. Visceral. Primal.
The abuse… it must have been unimaginable.
I looked at Vander, my voice barely a whisper.
“Alaric Moongrove is Chase Nighthorn.”
He stared at me, stunned.
“The ‘C’ in his name-it must stand for Chase.”
Vander’s face was ashen. Even he looked like he couldn’t breathe.
We sat in silence, the only sound in the room Martha’s shuddering gasps and quiet sobs as Vander tried to soothe her. She clung to him like a frightened child, her body still wracked with fear.
No one said a word.
Because what could you say after something like that?
The monsters we were chasing… were one and the same.
