Elara's POV
A new, cold clarity settled over me. The tears were no more and was replaced by a quiet rage. Marek hadn't just threatened my life; he had desecrated my parents' memory. He had turned my own pain and grief into a weapon. And Lucian... his betrayal was a deeper, different wound, but it was a personal one. Marek's was a public execution awaiting to be executed.
"Tell me your plan," I said, my voice surprisingly steadier and stronger than I expected.
Lucian studied me quietly, a flicker of pride replacing the pain and guilt in his eyes. "We don't lead him to the pack. We lead him rather to a place of our choice. Somewhere public enough that he won't be able to use his normal…. brutal methods."
"He'll still be armed. He'll have others along with him."
"He will expect me to be a beast," Lucian said, a sharp, dangerous, sharp smile touching his lips.
"He will expect teeth and claws. He will not be prepared for the wolf who has mastered the boardroom. We will ruin him with his own rules. We won't fight him with strength."
"How?"
"With a story," I whispered, the journalist in me waking up to align with the Alpha's cunning. "We give him a story. We give him the one that destroys him, not the exact story he wants."
Lucian nodded. "Precisely. He wants to expose a monster? Then we will show him one. But it will be his own reflection." He pulled out his phone, his fingers flying across the screen. "I'm involving a press conference."
"A press conference?" I was stunned. "Lucian, that's a stage a stage, no. The most public place imaginable."
"It is," he agreed, putting the phone to his ear.
"And he will not be able to resist the spotlight. He believes he is the hero of this whole story. He will come in front of the whole city to confront the villain." He spoke into the phone with his voice shifting into the cool, commanding tone of Lucian Drax, the wealthy entrepreneur. "Victoria. Get all my schedules cleared. I'm going to hold a press conference at the Veridian Grand Hotel at 3 p.m. today. The topic will be the illegal investigation into my business and person and defamatory by Detective Alexander Marek. Yes. Make it happen as fast as possible."
He ended the call. The decisiveness was a tonic. He was no longer just my secret lover; he was a force.
"He'll see it as a trap," I said.
"Of course he will. But he will also see it as his best opportunity to confront me, to provoke me and make me show my true nature in front of the cameras. His arrogance will be his downfall." He walked to me, stopping close but not touching.
"But I cannot do this alone. I need you to be there, Elara. As my partner. Not as a bait. You are the one he tampered with. He hurt you. You are the proof of his obsession. Your words will hold a power mine could never hold."
He was asking me to stand together with him. To publicly deny the world that had raised me and choose his. To out myself as the woman connected to Lucian Drax.
The fear in my stomach was a cold knot. But beneath it was that steady, new core of strength. The wolf who loved my name was asking me to fight beside him.
"I'll be there," I said.
The Veridian Grand Hotel was a palace of glass and chrome. By 2:45 p.m., the lobby has been occupied and swarming with reporters, a buzzing hive of curiosity. My heart was a drum against my ribs as I stood with Lucian in a private anteroom, watching them through a one way mirror.
"You don't have to speak," Lucian said softly while adjusting his cufflinks. He wore a suit that's more expensive than my car, showcasing the powerful CEO that he is in every inch. The beast was perfectly hidden. "Your presence is the statement."
"I would like to speak," I surprisingly said. "He made use of my mother's memory. I want to look him in the eye when I take his power away."
Lucian's gaze was intense. "Then… you will."
At exactly 3 p.m., we walked up to the small stage.
A hundred cameras flashed, a silent storm of light. The buzz of every conversation ended instantly and got replaced by a rapt, hungry silence. I saw Marek immediately. He stood at the back, his face a mask of cold contempt, arms crossed. Just as Lucian predicted, he had come.
Lucian walked up to the microphone. His voice calm and resonant, "Ladies and gentlemen of the press," he began, filling the room without effort.
"Thank you for coming on such a short notice. I am here today to address a campaign of defamation and harassment, which was orchestrated by one of the city's police department Detective Alexander Marek."
He paused, letting the weight of the accusation settle.
"For some weeks, Detective Marek has operated outside the walls of his authority, targeting my associate, my businesses and my personal life most disturbingly. His actions are those of an obsessed man, not if an officer seeking for justice."
Murmurs filled up the crowd. Marek's jaw tightened, but he didn't move.
"I have remained silent, hoping reason would prevail. It has not. His latest tactic has been to target Elara Voss, an innocent woman, a journalist, attempting to use her and the tragic memory of her deceased parents to fabricate a connection between his personal, fanatical crusade and me."
Every eye in the room turned to me. I felt the hotness in their gazes, but I kept my chin high, maintained my composure, while my eyes were
fixed on Marek.
"His vendetta ends today," Lucian's voice becoming a blade as it sharpened. "And to that end, my lawyers are now serving Detective Marek with lawsuits for wrongful investigation, defamation and emotional distress. Furthermore, we have filed a formal complaint with the police oversight committee, detailing his long history of unsubstantiated theories and his fixation on me."
A reporter shouted a question, but Lucian held up a hand.
"I will not be taking questions. My statement is clear. However, Miss Voss has something she would like to say."
He stepped back, handing over the stage to me. The room fell completely silent. My mouth went dry. I saw Marek lean forward, his eyes burning with a promise of retaliation. I walked to the microphone, my legs feeling like water.
I didn't look at the crowd. I channeled my whole only on Marek.
"Detective Marek," I said, my voice clear and carrying in the hushed room. "You came to my home unannounced. You sat comfortably in my chair holding the picture of my dead parents, the people you swore to my family you would find justice for. And you used their smiles as a threat."
I could see the shock on his face. He hadn't expected this. A victim's calm voice if accusation but the voice of a roaring monster "You told me you knew my mother. That you were trying to finish her work. You're not a seeker of truth. You're a hunter and not even a scientist. And you don't care about the memory of my parents. You only care about your prey."
I took a breath, the words coming from a place of deep, certain pain.
"I am not your weapon. Neither am I your weapon. And I am no longer afraid of you anymore. The only monster here is the one who uses a daughter's grief as a trap."
I stepped back from the microphone. The silence lasted for a full three seconds before erupting into a cacophony of shouted questions. Reporters swarmed toward Marek, cameras shoving in his face.
He stood frozen, his plan, his authority, his entire identity crumbling around him in a very public, very humiliating spectacle. He wasn't hunting in the shadows anymore. He was exposed.
Lucian took my elbow, guiding me off the stage and through a side door, leaving the chaos behind.
In the quiet of the hallway, he stopped and looked at me, his expression one of raw awe. "You were magnificent."
Before I could respond, his phone buzzed. He glanced at it, and the triumph in his eyes vanished, replaced by a cold, grim alertness. He showed me the screen.
A single message from an unknown number.
YOU SHOULD HAVE KILLED HIM WHEN YOU HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO.
SEE YOU SOON, LUCIAN.
…K