Chapter 50: Iconic Pose

Chapter 50: Chapter 50: Iconic Pose

Wilson had barely turned the handle before the door to Kyler’s suite was practically ripped off its hinges by a hurricane of testosterone and poor impulse control.

The triplets stormed in like they were raiding a fortress instead of entering their uncle’s hotel room.

Caesar led the charge, barreling past Wilson with the grace of a stampeding rhino, his eyes wild, his hair disheveled, and his mouth already running at full speed before his brain had even buckled its seatbelt.

"UNCLE! I’m sorry I severed the mind link before you could answer! BUT—BUT—BUT—Uncle, I did it ACCIDENTALLY because I saw SHOCKING FOOTAGE while I was mind-linking you! The crazy woman we’re going to kidnap tonight—she’s at THIS HOTEL too! She was in the LOBBY when we were about to leave earlier, and she even FOLLOWED US out after we left! So if she hasn’t gone back to her pack yet, that means our tonight’s plan is CANCELLED! Oh, and we also suspect that she—MMPH—"

Caesar bit his tongue mid-sentence, the pain finally forcing his verbal firehose to sputter to a halt. He grabbed his mouth, eyes watering, making a sound like a deflating balloon.

Caelian, who had been walking calmly behind him like a man who had never experienced an emergency in his life, patted Caesar’s shoulder with a grin so smug it could have been framed.

"Relax, Caesar. You sound like a man whose wife just filed for divorce and is currently fleeing the country with the mailman. Breathe. Use words. Not whatever that was."

Caesar’s face went red. Not from embarrassment. From rage.

He stomped on Caelian’s foot with the force of a man who had been holding that particular grudge since birth.

Caelian yelped—a high, undignified sound that made Caelus, who had been silently entering the room like a ghost with better posture, sigh deeply.

"OW—WHAT THE HELL—"

"Don’t patronize me, you walking cologne advertisement."

"You BROKE my foot!"

"Good!"

"Quiet."

Kyler’s voice cut through the chaos like a blade through butter. Cold. Calm. Utterly unimpressed.

He didn’t even look up from his drink.

The triplets froze mid-bicker, suddenly reminded that they were in the presence of the one man who could ground them, maim them, and write them out of the will in a single sentence.

Kyler took a slow sip of his Campari Spritz.

"Caesar. Finish your sentence. Without injuring yourself this time."

---

Inside the coffin, Azura’s heart had stopped, restarted, and was now performing an Olympic-level gymnastics routine inside her ribcage.

Crazy woman. Kidnap. Tonight. Pack.

The words echoed in her skull like a countdown to disaster.

Hold on. Are they talking about Selena? The "crazy woman" they want to kidnap from her pack? MY Selena? The sweet, naive, still-kinda-suspicious-of-her-but-also-possibly-starting-to-trust-her Selena? They think SHE’S crazy? SHE’S the one they’re planning to SNATCH in the middle of the night like some kind of Victorian-era bodice-ripper villain?!

She pressed her palm against her forehead, trying to stop the spiral.

And they said she’s in this hotel? Why didn’t I see her? I only saw those stalker fangirls from the Hot Alphas group chat! Did Mara bring her here? Is the female lead stalking the male leads now?! Is this some kind of crossover episode I wasn’t briefed on?!

She wanted to bang on the lid. She wanted to scream. She wanted to burst out of this coffin like a vengeful vampire and demand answers.

But she couldn’t.

So instead, she lay there, fists clenched, teeth grinding, plotting seventeen different ridiculous ways to sabotage the Blackwood family’s kidnapping plans while trapped in a box.

I didn’t sign up for this. I signed up for a trashy romance novel with excessive smut and questionable consent. Not a kidnapping thriller. NOT a situation where I have to foil a felony while trapped in a coffin like a discount vampire.

She looked down at her hands.

She had no wolf. No powers. No weapons.

Her only talents were:

1. Fainting (compromised, since Kyler knew she was faking).

2. Acting crazy (which she was currently doing FOR REAL).

3. Somehow surviving this long despite every universe conspiring against her.

Azura had barely managed to calm her racing heart when Caesar’s voice rang out again, and she immediately felt like she’d been doused in ice water.

"We suspect our crazy stepsister was stalking our cars earlier, Uncle."

Stepsister.

The word hit Azura like a frying pan to the face.

Stepsister. Stepsister. STEPSISTER.

So it is really Selena. The trembling little mouse who hides behind door, flees at the mere sight of Azura, and once ran for six consecutive hours just to avoid her—has already made contact with the male leads. Which means all of Azura’s desperate, sweaty, soul-crushing efforts to derail this disaster of a plot were about as effective as using a paper fan to stop a hurricane.

Azura’s soul left her body for approximately three seconds. She saw the afterlife. It was a waiting room with bad magazines and a fish tank that hadn’t been cleaned since 2008.

All my efforts. ALL of them. Befriending her. Buying her baby’s-butt-level-purity snacks. Enduring Jonathan’s existential crises. Acting like a reformed saint when every fiber of my being wanted to scream. And she’s been off SCENARIO-CHASING the main cast without me?!

But Caesar wasn’t done.

"She was chasing our cars at breakneck speed, Uncle. Zigzagging like she was possessed by a demon who failed his driving test. That’s why when I mind-linked you earlier—asking if you’d seen an unhinged woman near your car—I meant that woman’s daughter. Since I saw her behind your car before our cars separated, so... you know. Just checking if you also got a free audition for a horror movie today."

Azura’s brain short-circuited once more.

Wait, wait, wait.

Selena was the one speeding after them? That Selena was out here doing Fast & Furious cosplay in a residential zone?!

But then—why didn’t I see her? I was stalking them too! I was RIGHT THERE!

And then it hit her.

Oh, right.

Because she was busy riding that cursed scooter from hell.

The scooter that had clearly been possessed by the ghost of a reckless teenager. The scooter that refused to turn left no matter how much she yanked the handlebars. The scooter that had her zigzagging through traffic like a pinball in a washing machine while screaming apologies at pedestrians.

She had been too busy not dying to notice Selena also joining the vehicular chaos.

Great. Just great. The female lead is a secret street racer, and I’m stuck in a coffin while the plot runs off without me.

Meanwhile, Wilson glanced nervously at the coffin. A single bead of sweat rolled down his temple.

He shot a look at the coffin. Then at Kyler, who was still nursing his drink like a man watching a slow-motion train wreck. Then at the triplets, who were completely oblivious to the existential crisis happening two feet to his left.

Because something was dawning on him. Something terrible. Something that made his wolf want to curl into a ball and whimper.

That stepsister Caesar was describing... it sounded an awful lot like his alpha’s fated mate.

The same fated mate currently trapped in a coffin in this very room.

The same fated mate who had faked a fainting spell and was now probably listening to every single word they were saying.

Caelus finally spoke—his first words since entering the room, and they landed like a judge’s gavel.

"So, Uncle. We want to know... when you said some lunatic hit your car earlier... was it a woman? Was she riding a scooter? And if so... do you know where she is? Or..."

Azura’s ears perked up.

Scooter?! Selena uses a SCOOTER too?! What an incredible coincidence! How adorable! We’re like vehicle twins! Fate really is weaving ours together!

Still, despite the mountain of clues piling up like a game of Jenga that was about to collapse, Azura had yet to realize that she was the "crazy stepsister" in question.

She had completely forgotten that she too was technically their stepsister.

She also had not considered that "crazy" was a far more fitting description for her current behavior than for Selena’s.

Caelian, ever the helpful one, finished his brother’s thought with a smirk.

"And if so... did you order your guards to throw her into the crocodile pond? Or maybe drain her bank account and leave her with nothing but a ’thanks for the memories’ card?"

"CROCODILE POND?!"

The words exploded out of Azura before her brain could catch up and slap a hand over her own mouth.

She slapped her palm against her lips a moment too late, eyes wide as dinner plates in the pitch-black coffin.

The triplets froze mid-conversation, their heads swiveling toward the source of the noise like a trio of meerkats who’d just heard a very suspicious rustle.

And then they saw it.

A coffin.

A very large, very ominous, very out of place coffin sitting in the middle of their uncle’s hotel suite like a prop that had wandered off the set of a vampire movie.

Caelus had noticed it the moment he walked in—of course he had—but his brothers had been too busy squabbling and interrogating their uncle to pay attention to the giant wooden box in the middle of room.

Caesar blinked. "Uncle. Why is there a coffin in your room? And why did it just speak?"

Caelian tilted his head, a grin spreading across his face like a cat who’d found a new toy. "Well, well, Uncle. Who would’ve thought you had such unique taste in interior design. A coffin in a hotel suite. Very gothic. Very mysterious. Very concerning."

Caesar, already striding toward the coffin with the recklessness of a man who had never been properly scared by consequences, placed his hand on the lid.

"More importantly—who’s inside? Let’s open it and see!"

Caelian followed, his grin widening.

"Is this where you keep your enemies, Uncle Kyler? A traitor you’ve decided to keep as a pet? A rival journalist you silenced permanently? Or....a very kinky date?"

Only Caelus remained still, arms crossed, eyes fixed on his uncle with the patience of a predator.

"So, Uncle. Let’s try this again. Was it a woman on a scooter who crashed into your car? And if so... where is she now?"

Kyler set his glass down on the table with a soft clink.

The sound was deliberate. Measured. A warning shot fired across the bow.

"Before I answer," Kyler said, his voice as cold and smooth as the drink he’d just abandoned, "I’d also like to know something."

He leaned back, crossing one leg over the other, his gaze sharp enough to cut glass.

"Why are you three suddenly so eager to find and kidnap your stepsister? Your father told me you were reluctant to take her from her pack at first. But since you failed to kidnap her a few days ago... suddenly, you’re desperate. There’s a reason you’re acting this way. And you’re keeping it a secret."

Caelus’s jaw tightened.

The hesitation was brief—barely a flicker—but it was enough.

Meanwhile, Caesar—who had never met a boundary he couldn’t bulldoze through—had already pried the coffin lid halfway open.

Kyler sighed, the sound carrying the weight of a man who had long since accepted that his nephews were feral.

"The one who hit my car was a woman on a scooter. And where she is now..."

Caelus, mistaking his uncle’s pause for an invitation to answer, spoke quickly.

"It’s because she’s our fated mate. Perhaps."

Simultaneously, Kyler finished his sentence.

"She’s actually right here. And she’s my fated mate. I think."

Both statements hung in the air like two grenades whose pins had just been pulled.

And at the exact same moment, Caesar yanked the lid fully open.

What he saw nearly stopped his heart.

Inside the coffin, Azura had been panicking.

When the lid began to move, she realized she had approximately two seconds to compose herself before she was exposed in front of all the male leads while trapped inside a coffin like a discount vampire cosplayer.

The lid is opening. THE LID IS OPENING. I’m going to be seen. By ALL of the male leads. Inside a coffin. I look like a corpse who forgot to pay her rent. What do I DO?!

In a flash of last-minute genius, she decided:

I’ll pose coolly. Yes. Confident. Mysterious. Like a dark femme fatale rising from her slumber. They’ll be SPEECHLESS. I’ll be ICONIC.

The lid lifted.

Azura struck her pose.

It was not iconic.

It was... something.

Her black hair had tangled into a chaotic curtain that completely obscured her face. Her body was twisted at an angle that suggested she’d been dropped from a great height mid-yoga session. One arm was raised in what might have been a sultry wave but looked more like a seal having a seizure. Her legs were crossed at an unnatural angle, and she was somehow simultaneously lying down and levitating in a way that defied human anatomy.

Caelian, who had leaned in for a closer look, jerked back so fast he smacked his head against Caesar’s shoulder.

Caesar’s hand froze on the lid. His jaw went slack.

Caelus stared, his composure cracking.

Kyler, for his part, looked like he was reconsidering every life choice that had led him to this moment.

Azura’s muffled voice drifted through the veil of her hair.

"...hello, everyone."

Silence.

Somewhere in the distance, a bird screamed.