There were only two items inside the package.
One was a copy of my official the Lycan Royal Enforcement report, stamped with the royal seal.
The other was my medical record documenting the miscarriage.
Just two thin sheets of paper.
Cassian stood there reading them for nearly ten minutes.
“Sir? Sir?”
The delivery man finally pulled him out of his daze.
“I was told Chloe Vane lives here. Did I come to the wrong address? I…”
“No,” Cassian rasped. “You have the right place.”
He lifted his head. “Where is the woman who sent you with this?”
The delivery man flinched under Cassian’s bloodshot stare.
“I…I don’t know.”
Then he asked nervously, “Sir, are you alright? Do you need help?”
Cassian’s balance gave out, and he crashed to the floor.
The two papers fluttered down beside him.
They weighed almost nothing, yet they crashed into Cassian like giant boulders, making his head ring.
So every single thing had been real.
Every time I told him I’d been sexually assaulted, that I’d lost our baby, I had been telling the truth.
He could barely believe it.
Worse still, he couldn’t stop replaying everything he had done every single time I tried to tell him.
No wonder… no wonder the broken mate bond had hurt him so badly… he could still feel that soul–ripping agony even now.
“Cassian? What’s wrong?”
Chloe, Tristan and Jax had just gotten back from shopping.
The delivery man sighed in relief the second he saw Chloe.
“Are you Chloe Vane? There’s a gift for you.”
Tristan spotted the documents first.
He bent down and picked them up out of curiosity.
Then he froze completely.
Jax looked thoroughly confused.
“What’s wrong with everyone?”
He snatched the papers out of Tristan’s hands.
“A gift? Don’t tell me this is from Astrid. Let me see what it is.”
The second Jax read the reports, he dropped them in shock.
Chloe stared down at them.
“What is it? Why are all of you making those faces?”
She already knew it couldn’t be anything good.
Even so, a strange flicker of excitement stirred inside her.
She bent down, grabbed the papers, and stiffened.
The delivery man handed her a small slip of paper.
“The woman who sent these told me I have to make sure you get this note too.”
Then he hurried off.
There was only one sentence written on the note.
[My Invisibility Game gift for you: Cassian Thorne is yours forever.]
Chloe crumpled the note tight in her fist.
She glanced over at Cassian.
She buried her satisfaction and put on a worried expression.
“How can all of this line up so perfectly? Astrid might be pulling some kind of trick.”
She paused. “Maybe we should talk to the enforcers.”
At the word “enforcers“, Cassian latched onto it like a lifeline.
“Yes… the enforcers.”
But the moment they stepped inside the Enforcement precinct, Cassian’s last hope crumbled away. Chapter5
Enforcers kept all my personal information strictly confidential.
But when the senior enforcer heard why they had come, she could not hide her anger on my behalf.
“So Astrid had a mate? Do you realize she was almost sexually assaulted twice?”
After that, Cassian barely registered anything else the enforcer said.
Tristan was the only one who stayed calm enough to speak.
“Where is she? Where is my sister?”
“Your sister?”
The enforcer pinned him with a cold stare.
“What kind of brother ignores his own sister like that? What kind of werewolf ignores his mate screaming for help? What right do you have to come looking for her now?”
Tristan stumbled backward.
Jax caught him before he hit the ground.
Before Tristan could recover, Cassian dropped to his knees in front of the enforcer.
“I’m begging you… please. Tell me where she is.”
His whole body shook.
At last the enforcer let out a long sigh.
“She filed her report right away. But I’m sorry. Per Astrid’s explicit request, I cannot share her location with you.”
Every ounce of strength seemed to drain out of Cassian.
He collapsed onto the floor.
Only then did Chloe fully understand what my note had really meant.
She hid her quiet triumph and turned toward Cassian.
“Cassian… if Astrid doesn’t want to see us, she must have her reasons. Maybe we should give her space to cool off. Once she sorts through her feelings, she will… she will reach out to us on her own.”
Cassian said nothing.
Silence stretched on inside the Lycan Royal Enforcement for a very long time, and Chloe swallowed hard with nerves.
Finally Cassian spoke.
“You’re right. I should give her time. But before that, there are things I need to take care of.”