Finished


    After leaving the Duskgrave estate battered and humiliated, Lord and Lady Duskcliff stopped by Mooncrest General Hospital to treat their wounds. But as soon as the gauze was wrapped and the blood wiped clean, they headed straight to the holding facility where their son, Ronan Duskcliff, awaited his fate.


    Inside the reinforced holding sector, the stale air pressed heavily on the lungs. Dim, flickering lights cast long shadows through the iron bars, painting the concrete with broken, uneven lines. The scent of metal, old blood, and desperation lingered like ghosts.


    Lord and Lady Duskcliff sat side by side outside the reinforced cell. The thick bars between them and their son felt like more than steel–they were a chasm carved by years of lies, pride, and the irreversible cost of blind vengeance.


    Ronan looked nothing like the heir of the ckmaw pack.


    His once–groomed hair hung in tangled tufts. Unshaven, his face bore the shadow of days unwashed. He was gaunt- shoulders,hunched, lips dry, eyes sunken. The former gleam of dominance, of cunning confidence, was gone. What remained was a hollow shell.


    Even they, who had raised him, had never seen their son so broken.


    Once, Ronan had been the pride of the ckmaw Pack.


    Sharp. Charismatic. A natural–born Alpha, Wherever he walked, attention followed. Strength in every step. But now?


    Now he looked like a wolf who’d lost his bond to the moon.


    Lady Duskcliff’s eyes filled with tears. Her voice trembled as she reached toward the bars, as if she could touch him through them.


    “Ronan, how are you holding up in here?”


    Lord Duskcliff cleared his throat, his voice rougher butced with paternal pain.


    “Don’t worry. We’ll get you out soon.”


    But Ronan couldn’t meet their eyes.


    His gaze was fixed downward, expression right, breathing shallow.


    He was terrified they’d ask.


    Ask about Tessa.


    And of course, they did.


    Barely a minute had passed before Lady Duskcliff leaned forward, voice tense with unspoken dread.


    “Ronan… tell me the truth. Did Tessa wake up?<b>” </b>


    His heart nearly stopped.


    He swallowed hard “Ny–she didn’t.”


    But his voice cracked. The lie was weak, thinner than air.


    Lady Duskcliff narrowed her eyes. She wasn’t a fool “Don’t lie to me. We were just at the Duskgrave estate Lucien said she’s awake–and that she cleared Riley’s name. She said it herself–Riley didn’t lure her into the ck Forest That attack wasn’t her fault.”


    Hogan’s face went bone white.


    He opened his mumal but no sound came out.


    T


    3:55 PM P <b>P </b>·


    “Is she awake?” Lord Duskcliff asked, his tone now sharp, direct, Alpha–like. “Is she awake, and did you hide her?”


    “I… I didn’t—” Ronan stammered, trying to find an anchor in the flood of panic.


    Finished


    Even now, he was still trying to protect Scarlett. In his eyes, Scarlett had always been gentle, obedient, soft–spoken–the perfect mate. He couldn’t imagine her capable of leading Tessa into the cursed forest that night, of letting rogues tear into her and leave heratose.


    No. That wasn’t the Scarlett he knew.


    So he had stopped Riley from digging into the past. He had hidden Tessa–shipped her overseas under sedation–and locked the truth away.


    Because if Tessa spoke?


    Scarlett would fall.


    And if Scarlett fell… he’d never be able to face Riley again.


    Because Ronan Duskcliff loved her.


    Even now, even after the prison, the scars, the broken bones. He loved her enough to ache when she averted her gaze. To burn when he saw Lucien stand by her side.


    Love, after all, <b>was </b>never rational.


    It was selfish.


    And he was selfish to the bone.


    But Lord Duskcliff <b>saw </b>through it all.


    He had raised this boy. He knew the look in his eyes–the flicker of guilt, the tremble of fear. He knew a lie when it stood trembling before him.


    “We’ll know the truth once we check the hospitals,” he said coldly. “You think we won’t find her? You think we’ll just let this go?”


    Ronan fell silent.


    Because he knew the truth was already slipping out of his grasp.


    And when it did–when Tessa pointed to Scarlett <b>as </b>the one who had led her to that cursed clearing near the ck Forest, where rogues prowled and shadows whispered–everything would copse


    Scarlett would face prison.


    Riley would be proven innocent.


    And Ronan? He would lose everything.


    He lowered his head pain cutting through every word. “Yes. She’s awake.<b>” </b>


    The admission cracked the silence like thunder.


    Lord and Lady Duskcliff froze.


    Relief and dread surged in equal measure.


    Their daughter their precious pup–had survived. But that also meant. Lucien had told the truth And everything they had done to Piley–every punishment, every smear, every act of cruelty–had been for nothing.


    No, worse than nothing


    They had hurt the wrong girl


    3:55 PM P P .


    Let the real threat walk free.


    Lady Duskcliff’s lips parted, but she couldn’t speak. Her throat was tight. Her eyes burned.


    She stared at her son through the iron bars, disbelieving.


    Ronan lowered his head even further, no longer able to look at either of them.


    He had betrayed Riley.


    He had lied for Scarlett.


    And now, everything was falling apart.