Chapter 256
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256
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Carmen’s fists clenched so tight her claws nearly pierced her own skin. Her nails dug deep into her palms as she stood in the shadows, listening to every word.
Riley’s life-her future-had been shattered beyond repair, and the one who had helped destroy it now dared to talk about “enjoying her second chance”?
Had Harper ever asked Riley if she agreed?
A shard of frost flashed through Carmen’s amber eyes, sharp as a winter moon over a frozen tundra.
She turned without a word and strode into the dim-lit net café beside the Silverfang Den.
Inside, the air was thick with the hum of old machines and the faint scent of burnt coffee. Screens glowed faintly, casting cold blue light over the rows of hunched patrons. Carmen scanned the room with a predator’s quick, precise gaze, then slipped into an empty seat.
Her fingers danced over the keyboard with supernatural speed, each keystroke a calculated strike. Lines of code streamed across the screen like flowing silver runes, the monitor’s light carving her profile in sharp relief-predatory, unyielding.
Minutes later, she stopped.
Every surveillance feed within a kilometer radius had frozen, the signal scrambled, frames locked as if time itself had stuttered. The disruption would vanish in exactly one hour-long enough for her to finish what she came to do.
Carmen rose and walked back into the night.
By now, Ronan Duskcliff’s parents had already fled in their sleek black car, its engine growling like a caged beast as it vanished into Mooncrest’s sprawling shadows.
Only Harper remained at the Den’s entrance, her scarred face lit with the gleam of greed and self-satisfaction.
Her laughter-high, jagged, and edged with madness-split the quiet night like claws on glass.
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Carmen’s gaze narrowed, her stare as cold and weighty as the winter stars. She studied the woman the way a wolf studies prey—marking every weakness, every point to strike.
“Never thought it’d be this easy,” Harper gloated to herself, her voice grating and smug. “Just roughing up some useless little thing in prison, and now I’ve got more coin than I ever made running my business. Back then, I could barely scrape a few hundred a month. This? This is a hundred thousand moons in one go.”
Her grin stretched, wolfish and feral. “Shame that little wretch got out before me. If she hadn’t, I might’ve gone back in just for the fun of it-and earned even more. Still… this’ll last me a long time. When it runs out? I’ll just squeeze the Dusks again.”
“You sound very proud of yourself.”
The voice behind her was low, carrying the kind of pressure that curled around the spine like an alpha’s growl.
Harper stiffened, her mirth cut short. She whipped around, eyes narrowing. “The hell-”
Carmen stood there, framed by moonlight, her stance loose but predatory, her gaze unflinching.
Harper sneered, trying to shake off the unease prickling at her skin. “What, you think staring’s gonna scare me? Keep looking at me like that and I’ll gouge your
eyes out.”
Carmen’s lips curved-not into a smile, but into something sharper, hungrier. In the shadowed street, it was an expression that could freeze the marrow.
Harper had spent her life preying on others-before prison, in prison, after prison. She was used to fear. But this… this wasn’t fear she saw in Carmen’s eyes. This was the look of a predator who had already decided how she was going to take you apart.
“You’re looking for death,” Harper snarled, raising her hand, claws curling, ready to strike across Carmen’s face.
But Carmen didn’t move. She didn’t even blink.
Then-flash of steel.
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A narrow blade slipped into her palm, and before Harper’s hand could land, Carmen drove the knife straight through the center of her palm.
Schhhk.
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The sound was wet and final. Blood welled and spilled hot against the night air.
Harper screamed-a raw, high sound that echoed down the street, her knees hitting the ground hard.
Carmen’s expression didn’t change. She twisted the blade slowly, deliberately, until Harper’s scream broke into a choked sob.
Bending down, Carmen’s voice was a low, silken whisper by her ear. “Feels good, doesn’t it? Hitting someone who can’t fight back. You should know.”
Harper shook her head wildly, her face ghost-pale. “Please… please, stop… I-I was wrong-”
Carmen tilted her head, her wolf’s grin sharp and merciless. “Stop? Why? When you were pounding your fists into Riley’s ribs, when you made her bleed, when you broke her bones-did you stop?”
Harper whimpered.
“No,” Carmen said, her tone colder than the Mooncrest winds. “Now you want mercy? That’s not how the world works, little scavenger. That’s called double standards.”
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