Chapter 231
231
Finished
Alpha Duskcliff yanked Ronan up from the floor, his grip as unyielding as steel shackles. The younger wolf was still crying, the sound raw and feral, but the Alpha’s patience had run dry. Without slowing, he dragged him toward the manor’s
entrance.
Lady Duskcliff followed, her expression unreadable, pushing Tessa’s wheelchair.
Tessa turned her head upward, eyes finding the high windows of the manor. Riley… you must be happy, she thought, the words echoing in her chest like a prayer.
Yet the moment they stepped outside, Ronan planted his feet. He stood unmoving beneath the shadow of the manor, head tilted back, calling out for Riley’s forgiveness. His voice cracked, almost a howl.
Alpha Duskcliff’s temper snapped. His palm lashed out–once, twice–the strikes sharp enough to leave Ronan reeling. Only then did the Alpha haul him away by force.
When they finally returned to the Blackmaw pack, grim news was waiting: the Duskcliff Group had been hammered by Lucien Duskgrave’s Stormridge Pack until it was teetering on the edge of collapse. It hadn’t gone bankrupt outright, but the ruin was close enough to taste.
The entire household fell into heavy, choking silence.
Then Tessa laughed—a cold, mirthless sound. “This is retribution,” she said. She’d seen it coming from the moment she awoke to find Ronan defending Scarlett, blind to reason, willing to let others bleed for her.
If not for the twist of fate that had placed Riley in her path, the Blackmaw pack would already have fallen like the Ebonclaw Pack. Riley had spared them for Tessa’s sake alone.
She turned to her father. “I need your driver.”
“Where are you going?”
Her eyes sharpened, predatory. “The prison. Everyone else knows the truth. Kael Vale doesn’t. As one of the accomplices who threw Riley into a cell, he doesn’t deserve to live out his days in peace.”
Without waiting for an answer, she turned her wheelchair and rolled out the door.
Deep in Mooncrest, in the sterile white halls of a mental institution, Luna Zara fought like a wild thing against the orderlies holding her down. “I’m not insane! Let me out!”
It took two to pin her while a third bound her to the bed. Fear widened her eyes. “Do you know who I am? I’m—”
The sentence withered on her tongue.
Once, she’d been the celebrated daughter of the Ebonclaw. Then she’d become Luna to Alpha Alaric of the Ebonclaw Pack. Now?
Her father was dead. Alpha Alaric had betrayed her. Her son was in prison. Her daughter’s eyes held only hatred.
She was nothing.
“I’m begging you,” she rasped, “I’m not sick.”
The doctor didn’t glance at her. “Everyone says that. If you weren’t sick, you wouldn’t be here,”
Tm telling you-”
“You’ll be sick soon enough,” he cut in, sliding a needle into her arm. Cold chemicals flooded her veins, pulling her into a fog.
And as the world warped and dimmed, a terrible realization struck her: So this is what Riley felt. That helpless, caged despair when no one believed the truth
A single tear slid down her check before her eyes closed.
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Finished
3:33 PM
231
But if she thought Riley’s choice was cruelty, she was wrong. Had Riley wished, there were far worse fates–like the one that had claimed Scarlett.
The Rogues had dragged Scarlett deep into the wilds, their jeers echoing in the dark. She had fought, bitten, clawed, tried to run–each time earning only a savage beating.
As the heir to Omega, she was completely unable to complete her shift. To deceive Alpha Alabic, Elira kept injecting her with wolf pheromones, giving her the illusion of being the perfect golden child.
And now, she couldn’t even complete the transformation on her own.
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In the end, they shattered her legs to keep her still, chaining her like an animal in a sty, passing her between them whenever their hunger rose.
And as for why those same Rogues hadn’t torn Alpha Alaric and Scarlett apart when they dared to step into Rogue territory-
It wasn’t mercy.
It was vengeance served slow.
They remembered the night Alpha Alaric, in all his power, had stormed their stronghold, leaving their kin broken in the dirt. To kill him quickly would be too kind. Instead, they chose to keep him breathing… so they could watch him rot.