Chapter 280
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Each day, the captives were forced to devour an entire five-tier cake, one per
person.
The torment twisted their bodies with grotesque speed, their frames swelling like balloons overfilled with air.
The women—once vainglorious and alluring—had been proud of their wasp-thin waists and seductive curves, never allowing their weight to creep beyond a hundred pounds. Selene Ashford and the red-dressed girl had flaunted their beauty like weapons, knowing how easily men could be ensnared by it.
But after a month of relentless indulgence forced down their throats, their bodies betrayed them. Their weight surged past one hundred and fifty pounds, their flesh split with deep, jagged stretch marks, like centipedes crawling across their skin. The once-envied curves became grotesque bulges, their beauty rotted away by excess sugar and despair.
The men fared no better.
Aaron, once Mooncrest High’s golden boy, had been lean and striking at one hundred and forty pounds. Now he staggered under the burden of two hundred, his face bloated, his former handsomeness dissolved into greasy ruin.
Zao, who had always been heavy, was reduced to a waddling heap of fat, so swollen he could barely stand, collapsing often like a mound of flesh without form.
Carmen stood before them, her amber eyes glinting with predatory satisfaction. The storm of rage that had burned inside her since Riley was wronged had begun to ease as she watched their transformation into grotesque shells of themselves.
A cold smile touched her lips.
“Consider this mercy,” she said, her voice edged with Alpha steel. “Since none of you delivered true harm to Riley, I will let you crawl away with your lives. But if you dare touch her again—your lives are forfeit.”
The broken pack of youths nodded frantically, cowed and trembling. They had tasted Carmen’s cruelty and no one among them had the will to defy her again. All swore to behave, desperate to be rid of the nightmare.
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She dismissed them with a sharp gesture. “Get out of my sight.”
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The captives stumbled away, reeking of fear and sweat, none daring to look back. Aaron, Zao, and the others were too crushed in spirit to even imagine revenge. They all knew Riley was now under Lucien Duskgrave’s shadow. With the Stormridge Pack’s Alpha Prince at her side, retaliation meant suicide.
But Selene Ashford was different.
Her heart was a cauldron of venom. Beauty had been her greatest weapon, her source of power. Now, stripped of it, she was nothing but a bloated shell. Her vanity lay in ruins, her pride scorched to ash. And so her hatred turned sharp, buried deep where no one could see.
That madwoman Carmen was untouchable for now. But Riley? Even she had a white-wolf, but she found her wolf was weak. Riley was a perfect target.
If she destroyed Riley, wouldn’t both Lucien and Carmen taste despair? The thought slithered through her mind like a serpent, coiling tighter with every heartbeat.
Her lips curved in a silent snarl. Carmen. Riley. You bitches will choke on your arrogance. I will see to it.
Through all of this, Riley remained blissfully unaware. She had stayed within the safety of her home, quietly practicing embroidery, untouched by the storm Carmen had unleashed on her behalf.
But Maddox’s fortune had soured.
He had been waiting to handle Aaron’s divorce case, eager for the payout of a million in legal fees. But Aaron had vanished without a trace, Calls went unanswered, numbers shut off. Maddox, desperate to escape his own decline back into poverty, grew frantic. Without that case, his future looked as grim as the gutter he had once clawed his way out of.
Then, by chance, fate threw Aaron into his path.
At first, Maddox nearly passed him by, failing to recognize the swollen, wheezing man shuffling along the street. Aaron had grown so grotesquely bloated, his former charm buried under layers of fat. Yet the eyes were the same.
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Maddox stopped dead, disbelief flashing across his features.
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“Aaron? Moon above-what happened to you? In a single month, you’ve… you’ve become this?”
Aaron’s gaze flickered with shame. Once proud of his reflection, he now avoided mirrors, despising the man he saw. He had lost everything-his looks, his job, his pride. All that remained was his wife and the hollow shell of his former life.
He muttered without strength, “Don’t concern yourself with me.” His voice was faint, his breath labored, as though each word weighed as much as his swollen body.
But Maddox pressed on, desperation sharpening his tone.
“We had an agreement! The divorce case-you wanted your wife’s estate. Without proof of her infidelity, we have nothing to work with. Do you think you can just disappear and leave me with nothing?”
Aaron’s shoulders sagged, but his silence was louder than words.
Maddox’s frustration burned. He saw in Aaron not only a ruined man, but the ruin of his own ambitions. And he was not prepared to let go so easily.