Chapter 138
138
Lucien’s POV
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Duke gave a crisp nod before signaling to the Stormridge guards behind him. They moved instantly–two towering wolves in dark suits, each with the presence of a sentry and the strength of executioners.
Without hesitation, they seized Seraphina’s arms like iron shackles snapping shut. Her screams erupted the moment she was tom away from the hem of my
y coal.
“No! Let go of me!” she shrieked, voice jagged and shrill.
Her feet kicked wildly, heels scraping across the marble floors, her manicured claws leaving screeching trails like an animal / dragged to slaughter.
The hall had been filled with tension before. Now , it cracked open .
Seraphina knew me. Far too well.
She’d spent over two decades in the Duskgrave family, playing the role of Luna with a smile stitched out of venom. And in those years, she had learned a hard truth :
If I dared do something publicly, it meant I’d already accounted for the consequences.
If I did something in private–well, then there were no limits.
Just like earlier. I hadn’t lifted a blade myself when it came to those rogue wives–I’d simply made their husbands do it. Under pack law, that counted as nothing more than a domestic dispute. Nothing to investigate. Nothing to trace back to me.
I didn’t have to leave blood on my hands. I left it on theirs.
That was the kind of Alpha I was. The kind Seraphina feared most.
“Lucien!” a voice rang out
Ford
My father in name only,
He stormed forward, his voice thick with fury and disbelief. “You can’t do this. She’s your stepmother!”
I turned my head slowly, meeting his gaze with nothing but frost.
“Oh? So attached, are we?” My voice was smooth, laced with cold steel. “Why don’t you take her place , then?”
The air changed
It was subtle–like winter winds curling into the bones. Even the warmest corners of the banquet hall felt suddenly frigid, as if the blood moon itself had passed over
e flushed crimson, from his neck to his ears. Like a rooster cornered in a pit fight, too proud to admit he’d already
“You will no lay another finger on her he bellowed “No matter what she did. I won’t allow it!”
He stepped in front of Seraphina, arms outstretched like a shield made of wet paper. He might’ve thought it noble.
I found at pathetic.
Seraphina’s eyes lit with a flicker of hope. She i lawed at Ford’s sleeves, sobbing like a broken thing “Save me. Ford! Dont let
then take me
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138
“So touching.” I said coldly . “Fine. Take them both.”
The guards didn’t even hesitate.
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Two of them stepped forward and seized Ford’s arms. The man resisted, twisting and jerking, barking threats that fell flat in the cars of wolves who no longer saw him as their leader.
“I’m your father, Lucien! You’ll regret this!”
“ Mother ! Are you just going to stand there and let him betray his blood?!”
His words were meant for my grandmother– Matriarch Duskgrave–who had been watching in silence from her chair of carved obsidian. The regal lines of her face twitched, but she said nothing .
Only when I glanced her way did she finally open her mouth.
“Lucien…
“I know what I’m doing, Grandmother.” I said, my voice respectful but firm.
‘She exhaled a long, slow sigh. Then she nodded once and closed her eyes again.
She understood.
She remembered.
She was there the day my mother died–driven to madness and despair by the woman Ford now cradled in his arms. Seraphina hadn’t just taken her place. She had spar on her memory.
I’d been five years old .
A child.
But even then, I had picked up a knife.
To barged into their wedding chambers, ready to kill both of them.
The adults pulled me away before I could land the strike– but not before I made a promise that silenced the entire house
can kill you now, and the law won’t touch me. I’m too young.
I’d said that with blood in my eyes. And from that moment on, Seraphina had never stopped trembling in my presence
Not even now
The doors to the private room slammed shut. Moments later, the screams began
Seraphina’s voice tore through the silence, a raw, animalistic wail that sent a ripple of unease through every noble in the
Then came Ford’s voice –rage turning into panic.
The sounds from behind the door grew sharper, crueler Crashes men Bones, maybe I didn’t need to know the
details
Eseryone the
They were frozen in place
Even Kaley–who stood at my side like a flame wrapped in silk –showed no reaction. She didn’t need to
Because this wasn’t about vengram anymore
3:45 PM
138
Minutes passed.
D
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Or hours. The screaming faded, leaving only the rhythmic thrum of blood in the ears of those who still had the nerve to
listen
Then the door creaked open .
Duke stepped out first.
Behind him, Seraphina was dragged into view–though “dragged” was generous. She was a heap of broken limbs, her arms and legs bent at grotesque angles, the bone clearly shattered beneath ruined skin .
Her face–once the pride of the Duskgrave household–was slashed beyond recognition. Blood dripped from her cheeks like tears. Her mouth, now a cavity of raw flesh, bled freely. Every tooth was gone. She couldn’t even scream anymore.
She wasn’t a Luna.
She wasn’t even a wolf.
Just a carcass breathing on borrowed time.
Ford followed.
No injuries to the body, no visible marks.
But his eyes..
Empty. Hollow. Like a soul had been ripped from him and thrown into the Abyss.
The guards held him upright, but his legs had already given up.
There were no more protests.
No more pleads.
No more delusions of control.
Only silence.
The entire banquet hall had fallen into a frozen hush. Nobles stared, wide–eyed and pale. None of them would ever forget
And that was the point
1 turned my eyes back to the gathering.
Let them tremble. Let them remember that the Duskgrave name meant something again
That I–Lucien Duskgrave—was no longer the boy with a knife .
I was the Alpha now
And there would be no more mercy
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