Chapter 185 The Reckoning
Author’s POV
Sebastian made the call himself. His voice was flat, clipped. "Linda. You and your mother. Emperor Hotel, Suite 1208. One hour."
The line went dead before she could answer.
Linda stared at her phone, fingers trembling. The Alpha of Silver Moon had called her. Directly. Her heart kicked into a stupid, dangerous rhythm, fear and hope tangled together.
"Mom!" She found Dorothy in the living room. "Sebastian just called. He wants to meet us. Emperor Hotel."
Dorothy’s eyes narrowed. "Both of us? Why?"
"I don’t know. But..." Linda chewed her lip. "You think it’s about Emilia?"
"Of course it’s about that little witch." Dorothy stood, smoothing her dress. "Doesn’t matter why. An Alpha doesn’t ask twice. We’re going."
Linda ran upstairs to her vanity and reached for the foundation. Then Sebastian’s words came back to her, sharp as the day he’d said them. Without makeup, you make me sick. With it, I’d rather die.
She shoved the whole tray off the counter. "Insufferable man."
Twenty minutes later she came down bare-faced. Dorothy raised a brow. "No makeup?"
"Don’t start." Linda snatched her purse. "Somebody said it makes him want to die."
"Who says that? The man has no taste."
"You’re the one with no taste." Linda rounded on her. "You made me marry that useless Brandon instead of seeing what Sebastian was worth from the start."
"How dare you talk to your mother like that! If I have no taste, what does that make you?"
They bickered the whole drive, loud enough that people on the street turned to stare.
The Emperor’s lobby was all marble and gold. Dorothy slowed at the entrance, momentarily awed. "If I’d known the rumors about him were exaggerated, I’d have made you marry him. Look at this place. The man knows how to live."
"Now you see it," Linda muttered. "Bit late."
Suite 1208 sat at the end of a silent hallway. Linda pulled her mouth into her prettiest smile and knocked.
The door opened, and her smile died.
Men in black suits lined the walls, still as statues, dark glasses hiding their eyes. She didn’t need a wolf’s nose to feel it. The whole suite reeked of power, of pack, of predators holding still. And at the far end of the room, framed against the windows, stood Sebastian.
His presence rolled over her like a pressure front. An Alpha’s aura, unleashed and aimed straight at her. Those green eyes settled on her, and there was nothing behind them. No warmth. No irritation. Nothing.
Linda’s knees wanted to bow. She locked them and took a step back instead. "Sebastian, what is all this?"
"Don’t call me that." Cold enough to still the air. "You haven’t earned my name."
Something small and desperate flickered in her chest. If he was this cold with Emilia’s family, maybe he hadn’t forgiven Emilia either. Maybe there was still a door open. She tugged Dorothy forward.
Dorothy switched on her sweetest smile. "Mr. Simons. Thank you for having us. We’re so honored you thought of—"
"Honored." He said it like the word tasted bad. "Don’t be. I’ve never once called you family."
"Oh—you don’t mean that." Linda tried to laugh it off, answering for her mother, grabbing at the hope with everything she had. "We know you can’t stand our little Emilia. But surely you wouldn’t cut the rest of us off over her?"
"Who said I can’t stand Emilia?"
He came off the window slow, arms folding across his chest, and the air seemed to thin with every step. Linda had met this man before, the bored Alpha who’d thrown her out of his office like she wasn’t worth the breath. That man was gone. What stood in front of her now had its leash off, and it was looking at her the way a wolf looks at something already dead.
"Let me out," Ryder snarled down the bond, hackles up in his mind. "Let me rip their throats out for what they did to her."
"Soon," Sebastian told him, holding the wolf back by will alone. "Let them feel it come first."
"You... you already moved out," Linda said, scrambling for solid ground. "Everyone knows you left her."
"And you read that as an open door." His voice stayed almost pleasant. That was the worst part. "That because her Alpha stepped back, his mate was yours to hunt. Is that how it went in your head?"
The words landed on Dorothy like ice water. Her instincts finally caught up, and she seized Linda’s arm. "That’s enough. We won’t keep you, Sebastian. We’re still family, after all—thank you for—"
"Family." He rolled the word around like something rotten. "You still aren’t hearing me. So I’ll say it slowly." He stepped closer, and every wolf in the room dropped their eyes on instinct. "I am Sebastian Simons, Alpha of Silver Moon. I have one mother-in-law. Her name was Tanya Lorris."
The name gutted Dorothy. Her face went bloodless. She hauled Linda toward the door, but two of the suited men flowed into their path, moving with that liquid, too-fast speed that marked them as wolves.
Pack enforcers.
"What do you want?" Dorothy rounded back on him, forcing venom into a voice that shook.