I froze the moment Elliot spoke, his voice low but sharp with disbelief. "Hayley was the one who framed you five years ago?" The air in the room shifted, heavy with old instincts waking beneath the surface—pack memory, betrayal scenting the bond between us.
I nodded slowly, my claws—no, my nerves—tightening under my skin as I forced the words out. "Back then, Hayley and my sister lured me into that Abyss Club den. It wasn't a mistake. It was staged. The private room was already waiting… and so was the man inside."
Elliot's fists clenched at his sides, his Alpha aura flaring for a split second before he reined it in. Even so, I felt it—his wolf reacting, snarling at the injustice. What he had been told before had been a twisted scent trail: that I had wandered in blindly, that Hayley had only been a bystander who suffered alongside me.
And yet, between the two versions of the past, he chose mine without hesitation.
That realization unsettled me more than anything.
