---- Chapter 5 One sentence, and all the color drained from Connor's face. He stared hard at the amulet in Marcus's hand, frozen stiff, unable to move for a long moment. The next second, he grabbed Marcus by the collar. The out-of-control Alpha aura nearly choked Marcus, and his voice trembled violently when he spoke, quick and shaky. "How the hell did you get this?! Where's Aria?! Where is she?!" "What did you say about a crash?! Say it again!" Marcus knew all about his plans, from start to finish. Seeing him lose it like this, Marcus could only sigh helplessly. "This package came from Aria. She mailed it two ---- days ago, and it just got here. It had your name on it, so I thought it was something for the ceremony and brought it in." "Connor, your Aria... something happened to her. This morning. I just checked her flight info. The news about the plane crash is all over the internet. It can't be fake." "You said you wanted to make her pay for her father's 'betrayal' and her mother getting involved. You wanted to ruin her. Since Aria is... gone now, maybe we should just... cancel those videos for the ceremony..." "Connor, she was your marked beta, after all. The one you... poured six years of 'effort' into." Connor swayed violently, almost losing his balance. He mumbled, dazed, as if trying to convince himself, "No... impossible... Nothing could have happened to her! This has to be a trick! Something ---- she planned!" "She's just mad I chose Elena as Luna, mad I broke my promise to her!" "We just talked on the phone this morning! She clearly... she clearly said she'd wait for me! She wouldn't lie to me! She's okay..." Marcus looked pained and pressed the damaged amulet into Connor's cold hand. "Maybe she would have waited for you before. But now, she knows everything you planned. Do you really think she'd show up at this ceremony?" "Show up here, so you can play those humiliating videos in front of everyone? Let her father be branded a traitor, and her mother be scorned by everyone? Or just let you go through with this elaborate revenge and silently take all the shame?" "Connor, I don't know if Aria's father really betrayed the pack back then. And I don't know the ---- details of her mother becoming your stepmother. But in all this, Aria was the innocent one. She was pushed around her whole life. As your 'secret mate,' she never got any real respect or fairness." "Honestly, it's our pack, your family, that owes her more." "The revenge you wanted, it was just to ruin Aria's name, make her mother regret everything. Now that Aria's 'gone,' you've kind of gotten what you wanted. Those videos... why not just drop it?" Marcus turned and left, leaving Connor standing there alone. But a storm was raging inside Connor, and he couldn't calm down for a long time. He really had been looking forward to today's Marking ceremony, to this final revenge, for six whole years. Ever since Aria's father was convicted and her