Chapter 33
I tried to breathe, to answer, but the words caught in my throat and didn’t come. Everything about this was insane, and I could feel the edges of my control starting to fray.
I opened my mouth-nothing came out. And before I could try again, she turned on her heel and disappeared
back into the room.
Jason gave me a look. That same smug, warning smirk. A silent threat: stay out of my way.
Then he followed her.
Third Person POV
Jason had always been too good at getting away with things. But after the incident at the fundraiser, he knew he was running out of chances. Richard had pulled him from core projects. He was being left out of strategy
meetings. And Jason-Jason needed to matter.
So he adjusted.
He used Richard’s name to make himself sound important. Told the Elder’s daughter he was part of Richard’s
trusted circle. That he was there to help. That Amelia wasn’t trustworthy. That she was unstable. A risk.
The elder’s daughter believed him.
She’d never had a mate. She was used to being respected, but not listened to. Jason knew how to fill that gap—
how to lean in, how to compliment just enough, how to look like the only man in the room who saw her.
She opened doors. He stepped through them.
He learned the Elder was preparing to retire. That succession talk was quietly beginning.
Jason tried to leverage that knowledge into a permanent position.
Richard shut him down.
Jason tried again-this time, with rumors. Implying Amelia had motive. That she had handed off something
tainted.
Nathan caught it and shut it down before it could spread.
So Jason did what desperate people do-he broke rules.
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a path forward for him.
When even that didn’t work, he got reckless.
Amelia
I found him late at night.
The council wing was quiet. Lights dimmed. I’d gone back to retrieve a report I’d left behind.
He didn’t hear me approach. I stopped in the doorway, startled.
Jason stood in front of a secured file cabinet. He had it open. Documents fanned out like he was halfway through
a heist.
“Jason?”
He spun, startled-but only for a second. His mask settled fast.
“Amelia,” he said smoothly. “Didn’t expect you.”
“What are you doing?”
He smiled. That polished, confident one. The kind that never quite reached his eyes.
Then, without a word, he drew a blade.
A silver knife. Jason’s hand didn’t shake as he held it, but mine certainly did. My stomach dropped so hard it felt
like the floor had fallen out from under me. This wasn’t just him bluffing or threatening me with words—he
was actually doing it. Holding a weapon. Inches from my throat.
The fear came fast and sharp, rushing up my spine and locking my knees in place. My heart thundered in my
ears. My breath caught halfway to my lungs. It didn’t feel real-except for the cold edge of the blade pressing
into the skin just above my collarbone. That part felt very real.
I didn’t know what to do. Didn’t know how to move without making it worse. All I could think was: this can’t be
happening. Not here. Not again.
He closed the distance between us in two steps. The blade pressed to my neck-not hard enough to cut, but hard
enough to make my next breath falter.
“You don’t get it,” he said quietly. “This place isn’t about fairness. Never has been. People like us-we don’t
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Chapter 33
rise by waiting our turn.”
“You’re insane,” I said, frozen.
“No,” he whispered. “I’m just done losing to people who didn’t earn it.”
My hands stayed at my sides. My mind raced.
And then a voice, cutting and cold, snapped through the corridor:
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Jason froze.
Richard stood in the doorway.
Unmoving, silent, and furious.
