Chapter 108: Several conditions

When the study door swung open and Dorian stepped inside, Conri’s furious expression shifted into a more neutral one.

His gaze bypassed his nephew, searching the empty doorway behind him. "Where is the wife?"

Dorian paused at the threshold, his hand still resting on the knob. His eyes hardened into granite. "Excuse me?"

Realizing the disrespect in his choice of words, Conri quickly backtracked, offering an apologetic smile that didn’t reach his eyes. "Oh, where are my manners? I was asking for the Luna."

Dorian stepped further into the study and slammed the door shut behind him. He regarded Conri coldly, moving slowly around the desk and settling into the leather chair behind it.

"What do you want?" he demanded. "What business do you have with my wife?"

"I was just concerned, Dorian," Conri replied, spreading his hands in a gesture of innocence. "Can a man not be concerned for his nephew’s wife?"

Dorian didn’t respond. He sat in silence, his eyes fixed coldly on Conri like a predator watching a wounded prey.

Seeing that his feigned niceness didn’t crack the shield Dorian surrounded himself with, Conri dropped the warm facade entirely.

"I heard what happened during the Moon Ceremony," he said, his tone turning formal. "It was a great tragedy, and I am glad the Luna is safe. However, it wasn’t enough reason to cancel the ceremony altogether. Such a thing has never happened in our history, Dorian. The people might see it as a bad omen."

"Why are you really here, uncle?" Dorian cut in harshly, deliberately ignoring every single word Conri just spewed. "Don’t give me that bullshit about being concerned for my Luna. You clearly made it known that you would never accept her."

"I was wrong," Conri answered. He limped toward the leather couch and dropped heavily into it, stretching his bad leg outward with a soft grunt. "You can’t really hold that against me. I was only looking out for the throne, just like your mother would have done if she had been alive to see..."

"Don’t talk about my mother!" Dorian snapped, the sudden force of his voice startling Conri.

He sat up further in his seat, his broad shoulders taut as steel, his jaw locked so tightly the muscle ticked.

"State your true reason for coming here. You told my beta you had information regarding my Luna. Get to it, or get the hell out of my sight."

Conri’s jaw worked silently, a flash of deep-seated hatred flickering in his eyes. If circumstances were different, if his own son, Joffrey, were the one sitting on that throne, Dorian wouldn’t have dared speak to him with such utter contempt. As a matter of fact, Dorian would already be dead and rotting just like his parents.

But alas, he had to play his cards well. He needed to force Dorian to trust him, or at least rely on him, if he was going to carry out his plan and make Joffrey the Alpha King.

So he went straight to the point and dropped the bombshell.

"I know what Alyssa is."

Dorian’s eyes flickered, the pupils dilating before morphing into a brilliant, predatory gold. He forced his facial muscles to remain completely still, trying to appear unsurprised, trying to read every micro-expression on Conri’s face to discern if this was just another sick, desperate bluff.

But Conri looked dead serious. There was no smug smile playing on his thin lips, no arrogant glare, no haughty glance.

"Is that so?" Dorian muttered. "And what, exactly, do you think she is?"

"You don’t have to pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about, Dorian," Conri continued, leaning forward on his cane. "I know she’s a Hybrid. Half Lycan... half something far more dangerous."

That got Dorian’s full attention.

Seeing the blend of shock and fury ripple across his nephew’s face, Conri finally allowed a smug, victorious smile to spread across his features.

"You didn’t expect me to find out, did you?" he taunted smoothly. "Your little secret isn’t much of a secret anymore."

Dorian slowly rose to his feet. He moved around the desk, thrusting his hands into his pockets as he came to stand directly over Conri.

"What game are you playing, uncle?" he muttered.

"Games? Me?" Conri replied with feigned surprise. "If I were playing games, I wouldn’t be sitting in your study right now. I would be in a meeting with the court council, informing them that the Luna of Wintercrest is a fucking Hybrid creature."

Dorian’s hands curled into fists inside his pockets, but he said nothing. He simply stood there, towering over his uncle, glowering down at him like a storm waiting to break.

Conri grew bolder and grinned, resting his chin on his hands folded atop his cane.

"Seeing as you’re not reacting with your usual reckless violence, I guess I hit the right button. You and I both know the chaos this news will bring, especially for your young wife. Tell me, does she know Hybrids used to be hunted down and killed in the past? Does she know that you, her beloved husband, singlehandedly slaughtered every last one of them years ago?"

His grin widened to a sickening, malicious degree. "Does she know the entire continent will demand her execution the very second they discover what she is? And that you might very well be forced to execute her yourself? Does she have any idea of the threat she poses?"

"ENOUGH!" Dorian snarled. Behind his eyes, Shadow surged violently to the surface, itching to tear out. He pushed the beast back, reining in his emotions piece by piece, until he was in control again.

"How do you know this?" he asked calmly this time. "I know you, uncle. You didn’t just stumble upon this information by chance. You found out from someone."

Conri sneered internally. Dorian was walking straight into his trap, just as he had predicted.

"I’ll tell you everything," he said smoothly. "But under several conditions. And you must agree to every single one of them."

"You’ll have to tell me those conditions first!" Dorian snapped, his jaw tightening. "Just because you happen to hold information I require doesn’t mean I trust a single breath that comes out of your mouth."

"Fair point," Conri nodded. "It was Reynold Bennington who told me."

Dorian drew back slightly, a flicker of surprise crossing his features. Reynold knew what Alyssa was? If it were true, why hadn’t he used it to his advantage?

"I don’t believe you," he said. "If Reynold knew about this, he would have used it directly against me. He wouldn’t have come to you."

"That’s where you’re wrong, Dorian," Conri muttered. "He did come to me, several weeks ago. He murdered your wife’s stepmother in cold blood right after she confessed everything to him."

Conri paused deliberately, savoring the look of utter shock that washed over Dorian’s face. If there was one thing he relished above all else, it was holding total control over a room. Dorian didn’t need to know that he was the one who had summoned Reynold in the first place.

"You believe me now, don’t you?" he continued. "You know I’m telling the truth. After you stripped him of his Alpha title, he was desperate to strike back. He tracked down the stepmother, learned the secrets of your wife’s identity, and then killed her to keep anyone else from finding out."

He leaned forward, tapping his cane against the floor for emphasis. "The next day, he came to me with a plot for revenge. But I told him I would never plot against my own nephew, and I warned him not to attempt it. Apparently, the fool didn’t listen. The shapeshifter who kidnapped your Luna? That was all Reynold’s doing. It was his plan to expose her and destroy you."

Dorian remained skeptical, but a part of him was forced to admit the story aligned horrifyingly well with recent events.

"Why are you telling me all of this now?" he demanded coldly. "Why not use this exact same information to your own advantage?"

"Because I am not the villain here," Conri answered simply. "I know we’ve had our differences in the past regarding you, Joffrey, and the succession of the throne. But at the end of the day, we are family, and nothing can alter that. I simply wanted you to know who your real enemy is."

Dorian stared down at him for a long moment. He didn’t believe a word of Conri’s noble family defense, but he needed to know what trap his uncle was setting.

"What do you want in return for giving me this information?" he asked.

Conri straightened, meeting Dorian’s cold gaze dead-on.

"I want my children reinstated and granted high-ranking positions within the royal hierarchy. Joffrey has suffered the consequences of his betrayal long enough. Give him the chance to prove his loyalty again. Accept him back into the royal hierarchy, along with my two daughters. That is all I require."

Dorian wasn’t convinced one bit. He knew Conri to his very core, a conniving, opportunistic snake who would weaponize any piece of information he stumbled upon. He didn’t trust this fake peace treaty he was putting on.

"And if I refuse to accept your conditions?" he asked calmly.

Conri didn’t hesitate. "Then I think you know what I’ll be forced to do. You don’t want the whole of Wintercrest to find out that their Luna is a Hybrid, do you? Then accept my conditions."