Page 45 of Abandoned By My Alpha Husband

"Hybrid?" I repeated. My tongue felt paralyzed.

"Yes." The healer frowned. "Blood tests confirmed it."

Lina had been quiet this whole time. Now she spoke. "But she has no scent. Hybrids have werewolf blood too. How is that possible?"

The healer didn't look at her. He looked at me. "There's a spell on her—ancient magic, the kind only someone with witch bloodline could cast. That spell's been masking her scent the whole time. That's why we couldn't smell anything on her before."

"But the magic's weakening now." The healer explained. "The knife wound in her abdomen—the poison seeped in and reacted with the magic. The spell's breaking down."

I stood by the window, fingers sliding off the sill to hang at my sides. Mixed blood. The Gray family sent me a hybrid as Luna.

This was what Elena had been hiding.

Why didn't she tell me?

Didn't she trust me? Didn't she believe I loved her? Or did she just not trust me at all?

I clenched my fists. My chest ached—tight, suffocating. But more than that, there was fear. Elena was a hybrid. Keeping her alive just got a hell of a lot harder. Hale's obsession with pure bloodlines was practically pathological. In the Elder Council's eyes, Gray had sent a hybrid, slipped her into my bed, made her Liam's mother in name—so she could legitimately take over everything. Liam, the succession, the Luna position. She saved Liam for this. She was good to me for this. She threw herself in front of that blade, made the fragrance, knelt down to tie Liam's tie—all of it was for this. In their eyes.

But what about in mine?

The dying words of those two Butcher Squad wolves kept spinning in my head.

Elena hid being a hybrid. What else was she hiding? What was her real connection to the Butcher Squad—

My fist slammed into the desk. The teacup jumped, tea splashing across a stack of papers. My wolf roared inside me, loud enough to shake the air.

"Is she awake?" I asked coldly.

"Still unconscious," the healer said, then added after a pause, "But we got her back."

Damn it—I felt relief.

I turned toward the door, took two steps, then stopped. I knew what I was supposed to do. A hybrid sent by the Grays, posing as a pure blood Luna, threatening Hale's bloodline succession. Under Silver pine law, she should be executed. I should handle it myself.

Kill her. Execute her.

But I couldn't walk through that door. My feet stopped at the threshold. I pinched the bridge of my nose and turned back around. My voice came out hoarse, didn't even sound like me. "Exile her. When she wakes up, send her out of Silver pine. Tell the Grays the alliance is off."

"Lucifer!"

Lina's voice rang out sharp. She stepped forward, hands still clasped politely in front of her, but they were shaking. "What did you say? Exile?" Her pupils trembled, staring at me like she was seeing me for the first time. "Elena not only hid being a hybrid, she's connected to the Butcher Squad and nearly got Liam killed—and you're just going to exile her?"

She was more agitated than the deputy and healer combined. Her chest heaved.

The deputy and healer exchanged glances, then stepped forward and bowed. "Your Majesty, Lina's right. Under Silver pine law, hybrids must be detained. And attempting to murder a Hale royal heir—the punishment shouldn't be so...soft."

I looked at them. The deputy saw my expression and lowered his head, swallowing the rest of his words. Only Lina kept staring at me. Her lips moved, but in the end she said nothing and took half a step back.

The study fell silent again. I stood there watching the sky gradually lighten outside the window. The moonlight receding, gray-blue light creeping up from the horizon.

The burning rage kept getting crushed down until only numb coldness remained. What else could I do? I couldn't do it. I hated myself. I should've treated her like decoration. I shouldn't have softened at her wounded look, shouldn't have let my defenses down bit by bit, shouldn't have drowned in her tenderness until even my hands went soft.

Damn it. Damn it all.

Chapter Fourteen

Elena