Chapter 26
26
Riley’s POV
Alpha Alaric was trembling .
His fists clenched tightly on the edge of the table, chest heaving with each ragged breath as if trying to hold back an explosion.
+B Pearls
Across from him, Luna Zara had broken into tears, her face pale with distress. Her hand clutched her chest as she sobbed.
“Riley,” she choked out, voice cracking with pain, “that’s not true… Your father and I–we had you because we loved you. You have to believe that”
I laughed.
It wasn’t a laugh filled with joy. It was cold, hollow. A sound scraped from the bottom of a ruined heart.
“Love?” I echoed.
I gestured to my head, where fresh gauze still clung to a crusted wound. “I walked in like this. Mia noticed. And yet the two people who clain to love me didn’t say a word . ”
My voice rose, sharp and unfiltered. “Not one of you asked what happened. You just sat there. Eating, Laughing, Judging me.”
My eyes burned as rage swelled in my chest.
“Has it been ten minutes? Maybe more. Ten minutes since I walked through that damn door. And not one of you asked about my injury.”
“Did you not see it?” I snapped. “Or did you just choose not to care?”
I turned my glare on Luna Zara, watching her flinch beneath it. “You say you love me–but you stood there and watched them ruin me. I lost my hearing. My leg. My kidney. My future. You let it happen. You let it all happen and now you say you love me?”
My words echoed off the walls like blades, cutting through the air , slicing straight into their polished lies.
L
“Where was your love when I was locked away like a rabid stray?” I shouted. “When I was dragged into that courtroom. already convicted by your silence?”
Tears finally spilled from my eyes, hot and unstoppable, clouding my vision.
Luna Zara took a hesitant step forward, her arms slightly extended like she wanted to embrace me.
I stepped back .
She froze mid–step, her eyes flickering down to the gauze and the blood staining my clothes, her breath catching like she’d only now realized I wasn’t bluffing.
Kael narrowed his eyes , scoffing .
“Well, that explains the dramatics,” he muttered. “So that’s why you’ve been playing the victim tonight. A little blood to gain. attention! You’ve really lost your edge, Riley.”
His laugh was sharp , grating . “You’re not fooling anyone with this poor–little–me act. Stop trying to manipulate everyone.”
una Zara’s expression faltered. She looked between me and Kael, visibly
y torn.
“Kiley, is that true?” she asked softly, brows furrowing “Did you were you just trying to scare us? ”
Alpha Alaric scoffed from the head of the table, his voice thunderous. “Typical. A wolf can’t change its blood. No matter how well we raise her, she still reeks of the rogue blood she was raised in . ”
And just like that, I froze.
3:15 PM
26
Speed 8+
For a moment, my brain didn’t process what I’d heard. I stood there in stunned silence, the words crashing into me like a frozen tide.
Manipulative. Attention–seeking. Worthless.
That’s all they saw when they looked at me.
Not a daughter. Not a victim. Not a girl who’d been mutilated and left for dead.
Just an inconvenience..
A mistake.
My spine stiffened, and I swallowed back the sob rising in my throat.
“Think whatever you want,” I said, my voice cold, steady, almost detached. “I’m done trying to explain myself to people whot never really wanted me.”
I turned ommy heel and walked toward the side hallway, toward the old storage room I’d claimed because no one else in this house wanted to see my face.
“Stop right there!” Kael snapped.
His voice cracked like a whip, the force of an Alpha –in–training trying to reclaim control .
I stopped. Slowly turned.
The look I gave him must have hit its mark, because for the first time tonight. Kael faltered. His mouth opened, then closed again, like he forgot what he was about to say.
I stared at them all–at Alpha Alaric’s cold fury, at Luna Zara’s crumpled disappointment, at Scarlett’s tremulous concern- and 1 saw them for what they were
Not family .
Not Pack
Just strangers who shared my blood but not my pain.
Scarlett clung to Luna Zara’s arm. “Mom… her eyes… they’re scary.
Zara patted her daughter’s hand , her own face pale . “She’s not the same girl we brought back. Something’s changed in her.”
“She’s feral.” Alaric spat. “Ungrateful. If I had known she’d grow into this, I’d have left her in that Rogue camp to rot.”
“Alaric!” Zara snapped. “She’s still your daughter . ”
“I gave her too much grace, that’s the problem!” he roared, the sound echoing down the corridor like a whip crack. “She needed discipline from day one! If I’d set the rules, she wouldn’t be this wild!”
I heard it all. Every word .
Even as I shut the storage room door behind me, their voices still rang in my cars.
I slid down against the door, body trembling, arms wrapped tightly around myself.
The room was pitch–black. Cold, Smelled of cedar and dust .
I curled into a ball on the thin cot, burying my face in my knees as tears streamed freely down my cheeks.
So this was what it felt like.
To realize home was just another cage.
They’d carved out a space in the Ebonclaw manor for me, sure–but not a place in their hearts. Not really.
I wasn’t Riley, their daughter .
I was a walking reminder of a mistake they regretted claiming.
I cried until my throat burned and my shoulders ached.
Eventually, the sobs softened, my body gave into exhaustion, and I lay flat on the cot, staring into the void above me.
Sleep pulled at my edges like a tide, but it offered no peace.
In my dreams, the prison came back.
The fists. The boots. The pain.
My voice cracked as I screamed in my sleep.
“Help me. Mama , please. Mama …”
But no one came,
Except…
A hand. Warm, Gentle. Calloused.
Someone was stroking my back.
“It’s alright, pup. You’re safe
now …
Mama’s here”
That voice . It wasn’t Luna Zara’s,
It was older, Softer. Full of quiet love.
Mia .
Even in my dream, I leaned toward the sound, toward the comfort. My muscles loosened slightly, the screams died on my lips.
Somewhere far away, I felt her hand keep patting my back, slow and steady.
When I woke, the light through the small window was pale and blue.
I sat up slowly, dazed and hollow.
For a split second, I thought I’d dreamed the whole thing–that Luma Zara had held me and whispered soft things.
But no.
1 let out a soft, bitter laugh.
Even in dreams, I couldn’t pretend she loved me.
Only Mia ever stayed.