Page 34 of Captured By the Russian Wolf

The truth was out now, hanging in the air between us like a dark cloud. She had come into my life for only one reason—to destroy me. To take revenge for what I had done to her husband. And I had been too blind to see it.

My fists clenched at my sides, the rage bubbling up inside me, threatening to explode. I had let her in. I had trusted her. And all the while, she had been plotting against me.

My vision blurred with fury as the reality of her words hit me like a wrecking ball. Every moment, every touch, every whispered lie—she'd been planning to destroy me from the start. And I'd let her.

"Poison," I repeated, my voice dangerously low. The word dripped from my lips like venom, laced with disgust. "That's how you were going to do it?"

She nodded, her eyes wide with fear. Her body trembled, the tears now falling freely down her face, but she didn't speak. She couldn't. There was nothing she could say that would justify what she had tried to do.

"Well?" I demanded, my voice sharp and cold. "Why didn't you do it?"

She flinched at the harshness of my tone, her lips parting, but it took her a moment to find her voice. "I wanted to poison you for killing Alexei," she whispered, her voice shaking. "But when I found out things weren't as simple as I had thought, that he had betrayed you… and after we…" She trailed off, and for a moment, the silence was deafening.

"After we what?" I growled, already doubting the words she couldn't force out.

Lily didn't answer, but the guilt was written all over her face. She looked like a cornered animal, her body tense, her breath coming in shallow gasps. She had no idea what to do, no idea how to make this right. But there was no making this right.

I wanted to punish her. I wanted to make her feel every ounce of the pain I felt, to crush her under the weight of her own betrayal. But more than that, I wanted to know why. Why hadn't she followed through with her plan? Why was she still here, in my bed, in my life?

"Why didn't you leave, Lily?" I asked again, my voice quieter now, but no less dangerous. "Why didn't you finish what you started?"

She swallowed hard, her gaze dropping to the floor. "I couldn't. I couldn't go through with it."

"Why?" I barked, the demand like a whip crack in the quiet room.

Her eyes shot up to meet mine, and for the first time, I saw something in her that wasn't fear. It was something else. Something raw, soft. A plea.

"Because I—" She stopped herself, the words caught in her throat, but I wasn't about to let her back down now.

"Because what?" I pressed, taking a step closer. "Because you realized I'm not the monster you thought I was? Or because you got in too deep? Tell me, Lily."

She bit her lip, her gaze flicking away again, her entire body tense with the weight of the confession she was about to make. I could feel the tension radiating off her, the guilt and the shame twisting her up inside, just as my anger twisted through me.

"I couldn't do it because I…" she began again, her voice trembling. Her eyes met mine, glassy with tears, and when she spoke, I could hardly hear her. "Because I fell in love with you."

The words hung in the air.

I froze.

For a long moment, I didn't move. I didn't breathe. Her confession hit me like a punch to the gut, knocking the wind from my lungs, leaving me standing there in stunned silence. She loved me. The woman who had come into my life to destroy me had fallen in love with me instead.

My chest tightened with an emotion I couldn't name, an emotion I didn't want to feel. I had been betrayed before. I had been lied to, played, used. But this? This was something else entirely.

Love.

The word felt foreign, like it didn't belong in my world, like it had no place between us. How could she love me after everything? How could I even believe her after everything she had done?

I stared down at her, my mind racing, my heart pounding in my chest as I tried to make sense of the chaos swirling inside me. The rage was still there, burning hot and uncontrollable, but now, there was something else. Something that made it impossible to act, impossible to lash out the way I wanted to.

I should have thrown her out of my life right then and there. I should have cast her aside like the traitor she was. But I didn't. I couldn't. The truth was, even after everything, I still wanted her.

And that scared the hell out of me.

"I don't know what you're playing at," I said, my voice low, dangerous. "But love? Love doesn't change what you've done."

Lily flinched at my words, the tears streaming down her face. She was shaking now, her whole body trembling as she struggled to keep herself together. But I wasn't going to make this easy for her. Not after what she had done.

"You came here to destroy me," I continued, my voice cold, biting. "And now you want me to believe that you've changed? That you love me?"

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