Chapter 228
228
Riley’s POV
Finished
“No! You can’t do this to me!” Scarlett screamed, thrashing like a trapped fox. “Even if you torture me to death, I’ll never agree to donate my organs. You’ll never get my kidney.”
I arched a brow. “Dead wolves don’t get to agree to anything. All it takes is your dear parents‘ signatures after you’re gone, and I’ll have what’s mine.”
The way she froze… she looked at me as if you might ha
cruelty from her–and from Alaric.
crawled straight out of Hel’s den. She had no idea that I learned this kind of
They once plotted to leave me brain–dead, to harvest my organs like I was nothing but livestock. Now I would repay them in kind. Scarlett would learn exactly what it felt like to be gutted alive without a blade ever touching her–because I was going to make sure she felt the hole before she died.
She shook her head violently. “No! My parents won’t agree!”
Se from
a fresh kill.
Elira and Caden glared at me, fury bleeding into the air like
“You filthy little bitch,” Elira spat, voice trembling. “Over our dead bodies.”
I smiled slowly, a predator’s grin. “If you refuse, I have other Ways that involve your precious son overseas.”
ways
They both stiffened.
“Guns are legal there. So is wolfsbane in certain doses. I wonder… what should I do with him first?” I tilted pondering an art piece, letting the pause stretch until the room went still.
my
head as if
Then my eyes lit up. “Since my kidney matched Scarlett’s so perfectly… do you think your son and I would be a match too?”
“You stay away from him!” Elira roared, her eyes nearly glowing with rage. “He’s never harmed you–he’s innocent!”
“Innocent?” I echoed, my voice ice–cold. “Every meal he eats , every roof over his head, every coin in his pocket comes from Ebonclaw pack’s blood money. He lives fat and comfortable on the spoils of your sins. That makes him just as guilty. Father’s debt, son’s payment. One kidney is a small price.”
My words slammed into her, and I could see the moment her defiance cracked. Her scent soured with fear.
“No… you can’t… you can take it out on us, but not him. He doesn’t even know…” Her voice broke, and for the first time, I saw true panic in Elira’s eyes.
I knew why. She loved Caden to the point of madness. She’d slept with another male for his sake, shared herself to keep her mate alive, endured degradation for his survival. She’d do anything to keep him breathing.
And she’d do anything to keep his bloodline intact.
Her gaze slid to Scarlett, and I saw the decision settle like a death sentence. “Scarlett… don’t blame me. I have no choice.”
Scarlett’s eyes widened in disbelief. “You… you’re my mother!” Her voice cracked, a howl tearing from her throat. “If you agree to this, you’re signing my death!”
Elira turned to me, her voice low, raw. “I’ll sign the donation papers the moment she dies. Just promise me you won’t touch my son.”
cam was part sob, part snarl, the sound of a wolf whose own pack had turned on her. “You can’t! I’m your
“Ma-” Scarlett’s scream daugluer
She broke then Twenty–three years of being the pampered golden pup, of basking in the warmth of a mother’s protection- gone in one breath The pain in her scent was sharp enough to sting my nose, and the way she looked at Elira as if her heart had been torn out and left bleeding on the floor
She wept, thrashed, begged, but I didn’t flinch.
No one in the room moved to help her.
228
D
Finished
Because every single wolf here knew–everything she was enduring now… I’d already lived through.
Alaric and Zara had destroyed me again and again for her sake. Now, the moon had shifted, the hunt had changed hands. The cherished pup was prey, and the broken outcast was the one holding the fangs.
And gods, it was satisfying.
The naïve, desperate wolf who once begged for scraps of affection from her so–called family had died in that cell. The day I walked out of prison, I had no plans for vengeance–only to cut the Vale out of my life entirely.
But they wouldn’t let me go. They chased, they cornered, they bared their teeth until I was forced to bare mine in return.
Now my heart was nothing but scar tissue, pieced together not by blood, but by the ones who’d shown me real pack-
”
Lucien, Mia, Matriarch Duskgrave and Mrs. Beck. They had given me warmth where my birth pack had given me frost.
And that warmth was the only reason I could wield this cold, clean cruelty without flinching.
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