The Silver Wolf (Diana and Talon) novel Chapter 169

Chapter One Hundred Sixty Nine

“Agatha.”

Gideon spoke her name softly, but there was nothing gentle in his voice. Rain filled it. Pain mixed with betrayal, anger, and something far darker than anything Agatha had ever heard from him before. The sound of it sent a cold shudder through her body.

For a moment, she could only stare at him. The Gideon she`remembered had always looked at her with warmth. Even when he was angry with everyone else, his expression softened whenever his eyes found hers. He had defended her from cruel words, stayed beside her whenever she was frightened, and promised that no one would ever harm her while he lived.

But the man standing inside her home now did not look like the boy she had grown up with. His dark hair was longer and unkempt. His clothes were stained from travel, and exhaustion had carved harsh lines into his face. Shadows moved beneath his skin, gathering around his eyes and spreading through the veins at his temples.

Dark magic curled around his boots like living smoke. The air around him felt wrong. Heavy. Cold. Hungry. Agatha instinctively moved one hand over the curve of her stomach.

“Gideon,” she whispered. “What are you doing here?”

She took a careful step backward. The movement was small, but Gideon noticed. His expression changed immediately. His gaze dropped to the distance she had placed between them, and the pain in his eyes hardened into something sharper.

“You are afraid of me.”

It was not a question. Agatha swallowed. She did not answer. She could not explain what she felt, but every instinct inside her was warning her that she was unsafe.

The Gideon she once trusted was gone. Perhaps some part of him remained beneath the rage and darkness, but Agatha could no longer see it. The man before her was unpredictable. Dangerous. Someone she could not trust near her or her unborn child. Gideon took another step into the cottage.

“What am I doing here?” he repeated. His voice rose. “Is that truly all you have to say to me?”

The shadows at his feet stretched farther across the floor. Agatha’s back nearly touched the table behind

her.

“I searched for you for months,” Gideon continued. “Seven months, Agatha.” His breathing became unsteady. “Seven months of following empty trails. Seven months of visiting covens, questioning travelers, and searching every forest where you might have hidden.” His eyes burned into hers.

“I searched for you relentlessly.” He struck one hand against his chest. “I barely slept. I barely ate. I crossed territories where I could have been killed, because every night I imagined you suffering somewhere.” His voice cracked.

“I feared that the wolf had harmed you. That he had imprisoned you. That you were in pain and waiting for me to find you.”

Chapter Opervised Staty Nine

Agatha shook her head.

“Lucian would never hurt me”

Gideon’s jaw tightened at the unfamiliar name. Lucian. The wolf had a name. He knew she was with a male wolf, but hearing Agatha speak the name with such confidence-with such affection-made something vicious twist inside him.

“And now that I have finally found you,” Gideon said, ignoring her words, “all you can ask is why I am here?”

He spread his arms, his expression filled with disbelief.

“Did you believe I would simply forget you? Did you believe I would read your little letter, accept that you had abandoned everything, and continue with my life as though you had never existed?”

The darkness surrounding him intensified. The temperature inside the cottage dropped. Agatha could see her own breath in front of her.

“Gideon, please calm yourself.”

“Calm myself?”

The shelves trembled. Several glass bottles rattled against one another.

“I have spent seven months searching for the woman who was promised to me, and she tells me to calm myself.”

“I was never taken from you,” Agatha said carefully. “No one forced me to leave.”

Gideon’s expression darkened.

“I left you a letter.”

“A letter?”

He laughed, but there was no humor in the sound.

“You gave me five lines after an entire lifetime together.”

Agatha flinched. She knew he was right about that. Leaving only the letter had been cowardly, but she had been too frightened of what would happen if she confronted him directly. She could see now that her fear had not been unfounded.

“I explained what I could,” she said. “I told you that I had found my mate.”

Gideon’s eyes became colder.

“Mate.”

His voice was filled with disgust.

“Yes,” Agatha said, forcing herself to remain steady. “I found my mate, Gideon. My magic accepted him, and his wolf accepted me.”

“You do not have a mate.”

<Chapter Opemmiked Sity Nine

+do.”

“No.

The denial came out like a command. Agatha’s heart pounded.

“Lucian is my mate.”

“Do not say his name.”

“He is my mate,” she repeated. “And I chose to be with him.”

Gideon moved so quickly that Agatha did not have time to react. One moment, he stood near the doorway. The next, his hands closed around her upper arms. Agatha gasped. His fingers tightened painfully against her skin.

“Gideon!”

“You chose him?”

His eyes were almost entirely black now.

“You looked at everything we had and decided that some animal you barely knew was worth more?”

“You are hurting me.”

“You were promised to me!”

He shook her once. Not hard enough to throw her, but enough to make fear surge through her body.

“Gideon, stop!”

Her hands pressed against his chest as she tried to create space between them.

“Please. You are hurting me.”

He seemed not to hear her.

Ciaon

“You belonged beside me,” he continued. “Our families prepared for our binding since we were children. Everyone knew you would become mine.”

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