Chapter 240

AURELIA’S POV Father’s words still rang in my ears long after he turned his back. Do not jeopardize your future with Alpha Draven. Every syllable felt like shackles clamping tighter around my wrists, chaining me to a fate I wanted no part of. I stood there, frozen, until the echo of his boots faded from the hall. Then my gaze shifted to them—my new shadows. I just waved at them awkwardly, not knowing if it was allowed to talk to them. Kael and Darius, he had called them. Two towering wolves dressed in silence and steel. Their presence filled the room like heavy fog, suffocating and unyielding. To anyone else, they were guardians, protectors. To me, they were just another cage Father and Draven had built around me. Draven already had said that he want to ruin my life, but this is worse than that. I wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it—bodyguards in my own home. No one would dare harm me here, not when Father’s grip extended across every stone and corridor of this place. But Father’s w