Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy Chapter 116

ARIA

She studied me for a moment, her expression unreadable. Margo looked annoyed at the interruption but remained silent.

"Thank you," I said, the words inadequate for what I was feeling. "Thank you for speaking up. For giving me a chance to prove my innocence. I... I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't."

"I did it for the truth," Ivory said flatly. "Not for you."

The words stung, but I pushed past them. "Still. Thank you. I know we're not friends. I know you resent me. But you didn't have to do that."

"You're right that we're not friends," Ivory agreed. "And you're right that I resent what you represent. But Luna Aria, you need to understand something."

She stepped closer, and I saw something fierce and dangerous flash in her golden eyes.

"Alpha Kael is someone who kills for people he cares about. Who rips hearts out of chests to protect those under his claim. If you're not innocent—if we discover that you actually tried to murder me—do you honestly believe your bond with him will stop him from exacting punishment?"

The question sent ice through my veins. Because she was right. I'd heard the story from Margo. I knew what Kael was capable of when someone threatened those he considered his.

"Kael cares about you," Ivory continued, her voice low enough that only I could hear. "Maybe he even loves you in his way. But I was his first. I was the one he declared his woman to the entire pack. I was the one he spent three years isolated with, the one who knows him in ways you never will." She paused. "If it turns out you tried to kill me, your mating bond won't save you from his rage. If anything, it will make your betrayal worse in his eyes."

She let that sink in, watching my face for my reaction.

"So prove your innocence," she said finally. "Not for me. Not for the pack. But for yourself. Because if you're guilty, Kael will destroy you. And nothing—not your bond, not your position, not any pleas for mercy—will stop him."

With that cheerful warning delivered, she started to turn away. But then she paused, glancing back over her shoulder.

"Oh, and Luna Aria? Thank you for firing Margo."

I blinked, surprised by the sudden shift in topic. "What?"

"Margo," Ivory repeated. "Thank you for dismissing her from your service. I needed an assistant—someone to help manage the administrative side of my research while I focus on the actual science. Your petty vindictiveness gave me exactly the help I required. So for that, at least, I'm grateful."

The backhanded compliment was so perfectly Ivory—acknowledging something positive while simultaneously insulting me—that I almost laughed despite everything.

"You're welcome?" I said uncertainly.

Ivory's lips quirked in something that might have been almost a smile. "Good luck with your investigation, Luna Aria. You're going to need it."

Then she was gone, Margo guiding her through the crowd and out of the tribunal room. I watched them go, trying to process everything that had just happened.

Ivory had saved me from imprisonment. But she'd also made it clear that her faith in my innocence was conditional, pragmatic, not based on any belief in my character or trustworthiness.

And she'd warned me, in the clearest possible terms, what would happen if I turned out to be guilty.

Kael would kill me.

Not metaphorically. Not politically. Actually, physically kill me for betraying him and attacking someone he'd once declared his own.

The bond between us might be real. His growing feelings for me might be genuine. But they wouldn't protect me from his wolf's rage if I proved to be a threat to Ivory.

I needed to find the real attacker. Needed to prove my innocence beyond any doubt. Not just for my freedom or my reputation.

For my survival.

Because if I failed, if the evidence somehow pointed back to me, if I couldn't prove that someone else had tried to murder Ivory—then the man I'd bonded with, the mate I was building a life with, would become my executioner.

And no one would stop him.

Not the elders. Not the pack laws. Not even whatever remained of his love for me.

I was free for now. Free to investigate, free to search for truth, free to try to save myself.

But the rope I'd been given was very short, and the drop beneath it was very, very long.