in Vengeance 168_A Broken Alpha Heiress' Revenge

Third–Person POV

 +2 Pearls

 Sunlight filtered through the mottled leaves outside Mooncrest First Pack Hospital, casting shifting shadows across the sterile corndor Inude, the air was thick with disinfectant, but it couldn’t mask the stench of rot hospital always associated with the

 Ebonw Pack

 A sleek ck car pulled up to the emergency bay. The door swung open, and Duke stepped out, expression grim. He moved with purpose, trading his tailored suit for a doctor’s white coat and slipping a surgical mask over his face, revealing only his sharp, calcting eyes.

 No one questioned his presence. He belonged in every room he entered, whether bymand or by force.

 He made his way down the corridor and pushed open the door to Alpha ric’s recovery suite.

 The so–called patriarch of the Ebonw Pack was lounging against the pillows like some bloated monarch, fingerszily swiping across his phone screen. He barely looked up as Duke entered, mistaking him for yet another physician on the morning rounds.

 ric smirked at his phone, clearly enjoying a flirtatious exchange. The recipient? Dean Elira ckthorn, no doubt. The way his lecherous smile curled at the edges was enough to make any decent wolf retch.

 Duke’s hands clenched into fists.

 All he saw was the monster who had destroyed Riley’s life and twisted the fates of two generations for power.

 He stepped forward–silent, swift.

 Before ric could react, Duke yanked out a foul–smelling sock from his coat pocket and rammed it into the Alpha’s mouth with brutal force.

 ric’s eyes went wide, confusion turning to horror.

 His fingers shot up to pull the sock free, but Duke’s hand mped down like an iron vice. With a sudden jerk, he seized both wrists and crack! crack!

 The sound of dislocating joints echoed in the sterile air. The Alpha let out a muffled scream of agony, writhing as white–hot pain surged through his arms.

 Duke didn’t stop.

 He punched ric square across the face, over and over, his knuckles colliding with bone and cartge until the Alpha’s features were barely recognizable. Blood sprayed across the crisp hospital sheets. The freshly–healed bones in ric’s leg- shattered once again under Duke’s boot

 Another crack–this one deeper. Final 

 The Alpha of the Ebonw Pack let out a strangled gurgle before going limp, his body slumping like a broken puppet.

 Finally

 Duke exhaled. The rage that had festered in him for years, that had kept him awake at night, was momentarily silenced. He straightened, chest heaving, as if he had just exorcised a demon from his soul 

 Then he turned.

 And saw Theo Hale standing in the doorway.

 Theus fare was pale, eyes wide behind his sses. For once, the doctor had no smug words, no side remarks

 “You’re insane.” Theo muttered “The room has surveince What were you thinking

 Duke didn’t flinch. He raised a brow

 150 FM p P

 “So what’s the noble healer going to do? Turn me in?”

 Theo nced back at the bloodied wreckage of Alpha ric, then at the door. His lips pressed into a tight line.

 “Go. I’ll take care of the footage.”

 Duke stepped toward him and pped a hand on his shoulder.

 “Knew I liked you for a reason. Drinks on me tonight.”

 The night descended on Mooncrest in a ze of neon and thumping bass.

 +8 Pearls

 Inside Silverfang Den, the city’s most notorious bar, music pounded like war drums. The crowd was wild, half drunk, half feral. Exactly the kind of ce where secrets disappeared.

 Duke and Theo sat in a shadowed corner booth, downing one ss after another.

 Duke drank to burn away the image of Riley’s suffering–the memory of her bloodied hands and broken voice.

 Theo drank for different reasons.

 Each sip dulled the memory of his own cruelty–the sharp words he’d once hurled at Riley, the way he hadughed at her pain alongside Kael Vale. Now every bitter drop reminded him of what a coward he’d been.

 A fool.

 A traitor in healer’s robes

 Hours blurred. sses clinked Laughter grew louder.

 Eventually, Theo copsed sideways onto the leather couch, passed out cold.

 Duke, still somewhat lucid, stumbled toward the bar’s exit, breath fogging in the chill air outside. He pulled off his sses, tugged at his cor, and dropped heavily onto the curb.

 He needed the

 cold.

 He needed to feel something other than rage.

 But he wasn’t alone.

 From a shadowed corner of the bar, Carmen had been watching the two men all night, her expression unreadable. Now, seeing Duke alone and exposed, she moved.

 She approached with the grace of a predator.

 Duke looked up just in time to see a slender girl step into the glow of the streemp. She held an umbre in her hand, and her voice was sol–almost innocent.

 “Sir, your umbre.”

 Her tone was gentle, almost hesitant. Her eyes were wide, shimmering like the sea under moonlight.

 She looked like a harmless, polite girl offering a kindness.

 But Duke’s instincts twitched

 He knew a wolf in sheep’s clothing when he saw one.

 Carmen similed sweetly

 Inude the bar, Theo Hale stirred on the couch–just in time to feel a burning sting across his cheek

 Carmen’s p echoed like a whip track.

 She stood over him, eyes zing with fury.

 She knew him. Theo had once stood by Kael Vale, had once called Riley names,ughed at her tears.

 Carmen would never forget that.

 “Trash, she muttered.

 Then she turned on her heel and left Theo bleeding and stunned, stalking after Duke.

 1

 +8 Pearls

 s

 Because any man who was friends with those monsters from the Ebonw Pack–Kael Vale, Theo Hale, even Duke–was no better than the rest.

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17kNovel

in Vengeance 168