Chapter 63
“Heh
FRIS
A cold laugh escaped my lips before I could stop it. It echoed through the sterile hospital room, sharp as broken glass. “No wonder the maids in the Ebonclaw Pack look down on me,” I said, my voice low, brittle with irony. “They call Scarlett Young Lady, and me? Just “Miss Riley. And they’re not wrong.”
I turned my
y gaze on Luna Zara and Kael Vale–my so–called mother and brother.
“Because neither of you ever intended to acknowledge me as one of your own.”
“I’ve always just been a guest in your house. A stray wolf at your doorstep.” I tilted my head. “Not family. Not truly.”
My voice dropped further, flat and void of warmth. “So why are you still here?”
Zara flinched. Then, in the blink of an eye, her expression shifted. The motherly sorrow vanished, replaced by cold Luna resolve. She straightened her spine, her jaw set firm.
“Whether you accept it or not. Riley, you are my daughter,” she said. “I carried you in my womb for ten months. You have Ebonclaw blood running through your veins. And that bond can never be broken.”
“Being born of our Pack comes with responsibilities. Sacrifices. As a Vale, you owe your life to this Pack.”
I didn’t respond.
She stepped closer, voice cold as iron. “Don’t forget what you promised me and Alpha Alaric. If you dare go back on your word and jeopardize our alliance with Alpha Lucien Duskgrave, then everything you hope to gain–your freedom, your future, the one million promised–will vanish.”
There it was.
The real reason she came.
Not concern. Not remorse.
Just the deal.
The arrangement.
The damn marriage pact with the Stormridge Pack’s Alpha heir, Lucien.
She hadn’t come to check if I was still bleeding inside.
She’d come to make sure the bride was still intact.
I had long since stopped hoping she’d see me as her daughter. What was the point? I was leverage to them. A rare white wolf they couldn’t tame–so now, they’d sell me off instead.
Her words didn’t surprise me. I had anticipated every single one.
“If you’re finished,” I uid coolly, “please leave.”
I turned my face away from her. I didn’t want to see their expressions. Not their guilt. Not their lies.
čara i breath caught. She stood there for a moment too long. Maybe she still thought I’d cry, beg, scream. But I didn’t.
There were no more tears left in me for them.
When she finally spoke again, her voice was icy. “You look fine to me. Recover quickly. Your father and I will schedule the meeting with Alpha Lucien You’ll do your dury
She turned and left without another glance.
Karl lingered. His dark eyes searched my face–for what, I didn’t know. Forgiveness? Weakness?
He found neither.
He sighed and followed her out the door.
Silence settled over the room like snow. Suffocating. Heavy.
I sat
in that quiet, my hands clenched in the sheets, heart beating hollow in my chest.
I wouldn’t cry..
Not, for them.
Not anymore.
Then-
“Miss Riley, you must be starving.”
+8 Pearls
Mia’s voice cut through the fog like warm light. She opened the insulated container, and the scent of slow–simmered bone broth filled the room, soothing something raw in me.
I took the bowl in my hands and sipped. The warmth traveled down my throat, but it tasted like nothing.
Almost without meaning to, I whispered. “Carmen’s lucky”
Mia paused.
“She’s got you for a mother.”
Her eyes glossed over, but she blinked fast, keeping the tears at bay. She sat beside me and took my hand.
“Miss Riley,” she said gently, “let’s leave. You, me, and Carmen. We’ll disappear. Go somewhere the Vales will never
find us. Somewhere peaceful”
God, how I wanted that
The mere thought made my chest ache.
But I couldn’t
Not yet.
If I ran now, they’d crush Mia. They’d revoke Carmen’s Ashmoor scholarship, destroy her future. And the deal with Lucien still hung over me like a chain made of silver.
No
Td marry him.
I’d take the moncy.
Then I’d leave–and I’d take Mia and Carmen
with me.
Far away from the Ebonclaw Pack. Far from Alaric, Zara, Kael, and all their lies.
But I couldn’t tell her that
So I said nothing Just kept sipping the soup. It was warm, but it tasted like ash.
“You’ve changed,” she said softly “You’re not the same girl I picked up from Mooncrest Penitentiary. I saw it the moment you crossed the gate. You were already planning to leave.”
“Why haven’t you. Riley?” she asked quietly. “Did they threaten you?”
My throat tightened. I stared into the soup.
“No,” I whispered.
But even I didn’t believe it.
And I could see from her face–neither did she.