Sold to Bastard Alpha after My Divorce!-Chapter 186

Aria’s POV

I chose a low-key café on purpose.

No windows facing the street. Corner table. Nothing flashy. The kind of place where nobody cared who you were or what you were talking about.

I got there early. Ordered a black coffee I didn’t really want. Stared at the door.

The night before, after Kael went back inside the mansion, I’d stood alone in the dark and scrolled to Serena’s name in my phone. My thumb hovered over it for a long time.

She picked up on the third ring.

*"What?"*

Classic Serena. No hello. No surprise. Just that flat, vaguely hostile tone she’d perfected since childhood.

I told her I needed to talk. She laughed and said she was busy. I told her it was about Lucian.

Silence.

Then: *"Fine. Tomorrow. But somewhere public. I don’t trust you."*

I almost laughed at that. She didn’t trust ME.

So here I was. Nursing cold coffee and watching the door.

She showed up twenty minutes late.

I spotted her the second she walked in. Hard not to. Serena had always had a gift for entering a room like she expected a spotlight to follow her. Today she was wearing a cream fur-trimmed coat, gold hoop earrings the size of my fist, and sunglasses that probably cost more than my monthly rent. Her lips were painted a deep wine red. Her hair was done in elaborate waves.

She looked like money.

Borrowed money, I suspected. Lucian’s money, maybe.

The thought made my stomach turn.

She scanned the room, found me, and pulled off her sunglasses with a dramatic flourish. Tossed them on the table. Dropped into the seat across from me like she owned the place.

She was chewing gum.

"You finally decided to stop messing around out there and come back, huh?" Her voice was sharp. Impatient. Like I was wasting her time just by existing.

I wrapped my hands around my coffee cup.

"It’s good to see you too, Serena." I kept my voice level. "I’ve been back for a while actually. I just didn’t reach out."

Her perfectly sculpted eyebrow arched. "And why would you, right? Too busy playing house with your rich boyfriends to bother with your actual family."

There it was. Thirty seconds in and we were already here.

I didn’t take the bait.

"I’m not here to fight."

"Then why ARE you here?" She leaned back, crossing her arms, looking at me with that expression she’d had since we were kids. Half bored. Half suspicious. Like she was waiting for me to ask for something so she could say no.

I set down my cup.

"Are you seeing Lucian Blood Crown?"

The tiniest flicker crossed her face. Gone before I could read it properly.

Then she smiled. Slow and sharp. "My love life isn’t really any of your business, is it?"

"Serena."

"What?" She spread her hands. All innocence. "I’m serious. You don’t get to disappear for years and then show up demanding I report my relationships to you."

"I’m not asking you to report anything." I kept my voice even. "I’m asking because I know. I know you’re seeing him. And I know you’ve been giving him Wolfsbane."

The smile didn’t disappear exactly. It just froze. Set like concrete.

Her jaw worked the gum slower.

"Where’d you hear that?"

"Doesn’t matter. What matters is that it’s true."

She looked at me for a long moment. Then she shrugged. One shoulder. Casual. Like we were talking about the weather.

"So what if I am? It’s not like I’m forcing anything on him. He WANTS it. He comes to me for it." She picked up the menu. Flipped through it like she was actually considering ordering something. "Men like Lucian have been using long before I came along. I didn’t ruin him. Someone else already did that."

My fingers tightened around the cup.

"Cain, our brother."

"Yeah, well." She set the menu down. "History repeating itself, I guess."

I stared at her.

She said it like it was nothing. Like the fact that our family had now destroyed the same man twice was just a fun little coincidence.

"Serena." I leaned forward. "I’m telling you to stop. Get out before this goes further. Because if you don’t—"

"If I don’t, what?" She cut me off, voice going flat and hard. "Ooh. I’m shaking."

I took a breath. Slow. Deliberate.

"I’m telling you this because you’re going to end up in prison." The words came out low and clear. "Distributing Wolfsbane to a known addict isn’t just risky. It’s a criminal offense. And right now, Lucian is in serious condition. If something happens to him—"

"Nothing is going to happen to him." She waved her hand. Dismissive. "He’s been doing this for years. He knows how much to take."

She looked at me across the table. Really looked. Like she was trying to figure out the angle. What I wanted. What I was after.

"I came here because you’re my sister," I said quietly. "Because you’re about to do something that will put you behind bars. Because—God help me—I still care what happens to you even when you make it really hard to."

Something shifted in her expression. Just for a second. Something that looked almost like—

She blinked. And it was gone.

"You’re being dramatic." She straightened up. "Who’s going to come after me, exactly? The Blood Crowns? Magnus’s people? Please. Lucian’s their embarrassment. They’ve been hiding him for years. They’re not going to drag this into the open."

"Kael took over from Magnus." My voice was flat. "And Kael doesn’t hide anything."

That landed harder. I watched her absorb it.

"Even so." She lifted her chin. "I’m Lucian’s girlfriend. Alpha’s brother’s girlfriend. Who is going to touch me?"

"The law," I said. "The law will touch you. Wolfsbane trafficking doesn’t care whose girlfriend you are."

She looked at me for a long moment. Then she sighed. Like she was exhausted by my naivety.

"You’ve been living in the human world too long." She pulled out her phone. Started scrolling. "Things don’t work that way here and you know it. Money talks. Connections talk. And right now, I’m connected." 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"Serena—"

"Oh." She looked up. Like she’d just remembered something. "I forgot to tell you. Mom’s on her way."

The words hit me like cold water.

I stared at her. "What?"

"She’s been nearby." Serena was typing something. Completely unbothered. "I texted her when you called. Told her you were back. She got really excited." A small smile. Knowing. Vicious. "She’s been a little short on cash lately. You know how she is."

"I told you not to tell her." My voice came out hard. "I specifically told you—"

"You told me." She looked up again. Innocent as anything. "But I never actually agreed, did I? And she’s our mother. She had a right to know her daughter has been alive and well and just couldn’t be bothered to call."

My throat tightened.

I looked across the table at my sister.

She was sitting there looking so self-satisfied. So untouchable. Like nothing I said had landed. Like none of it mattered.

My chair scraped back against the floor.

I stood up.

"Aria—"

"I gave you the warning." My voice came out flat. Cold. "I told you what’s coming. What you do with it is your choice."

I grabbed my bag off the back of the chair.

Serena looked up at me then. I met her eyes.

"Take care of yourself, Serena."

She opened her mouth.

I turned and walked away.