Finished


    Alpha Duskcliff yanked Ronan up from the floor, his grip as unyielding as steel shackles. The younger wolf was still crying, the sound raw and feral, but the Alpha’s patience had run dry. Without slowing, he dragged him toward the manor’s


    entrance.


    Lady Duskcliff followed, her expression unreadable, pushing Tessa’s wheelchair.


    Tessa turned her head upward, eyes finding the high windows of the manor. Riley… you must be happy, she thought, the words echoing in her chest like a prayer.


    Yet the moment they stepped outside, Ronan nted his feet. He stood unmoving beneath the shadow of the manor, head tilted back, calling out for Riley’s forgiveness. His voice cracked, almost a howl.


    Alpha Duskcliff’s temper snapped. His palmshed out–once, twice–the strikes sharp enough to leave Ronan reeling. Only then did the Alpha haul him away by force.


    When they finally returned to the ckmaw pack, grim news was waiting: the Duskcliff Group had been hammered by Lucien Duskgrave’s Stormridge Pack until it was teetering on the edge of copse. It hadn’t gone bankrupt outright, but the ruin was close enough to taste.


    The entire household fell into heavy, choking silence.


    Then Tessaughed—a cold, mirthless sound. “This is retribution,” she said. She’d seen iting from the moment she awoke to find Ronan defending Scarlett, blind to reason, willing to let others bleed for her.


    If not for the twist of fate that had ced Riley in her path, the ckmaw pack would already have fallen like the Ebonw Pack. Riley had spared them for Tessa’s sake alone.


    She turned to her father. “I need your driver.”


    “Where are you going?”


    Her eyes sharpened, predatory. “The prison. Everyone else knows the truth. Kael Vale doesn’t. As one of the aplices who threw Riley into a cell, he doesn’t deserve to live out his days in peace.”


    Without waiting for an answer, she turned her wheelchair and rolled out the door.


    Deep in Mooncrest, in the sterile white halls of a mental institution, Luna Zara fought like a wild thing against the orderlies holding her down. “I’m not insane! Let me out!”


    It took two to pin her while a third bound her to the bed. Fear widened her eyes. “Do you know who I am? I’m—”


    The sentence withered on her tongue.


    Once, she’d been the celebrated daughter of the Ebonw. Then she’d be Luna to Alpha ric of the Ebonw Pack. Now?


    Her father was dead. Alpha ric had betrayed her. Her son was in prison. Her daughter’s eyes held only hatred.


    She was nothing.


    “I’m begging you,” she rasped, “I’m not sick.”


    The doctor didn’t nce at her. “Everyone says that. If you weren’t sick, you wouldn’t be here,”


    Tm telling you-”


    “You’ll be sick soon enough,” he cut in, sliding a needle into her arm. Cold chemicals flooded her veins, pulling her into a fog.


    And as the world warped and dimmed, a terrible realization struck her: So this is what Riley felt. That helpless, caged despair when no one believed the truth


    <b>A </b>single tear slid down her check before her eyes closed.


    Finished


    3:33 PM


    But if she thought Riley’s choice was cruelty, she was wrong. Had Riley wished, there were far worse fates–like the one that had imed Scarlett.


    The Rogues had dragged Scarlett deep into the wilds, their jeers echoing in the dark. She had fought, bitten, wed, tried to run–each time earning only a savage beating.


    As the heir to Omega, she waspletely unable toplete her shift. To deceive Alpha bic, Elira kept injecting her with wolf pheromones, giving her the illusion of being the perfect golden child.


    And now, she couldn’t evenplete the transformation on her own.


    inthin


    viar


    a


    .


    In the end, they shattered her legs to keep her still, chaining her like an animal in a sty, passing her between them whenever their hunger rose.


    And as for why those same Rogues hadn’t torn Alpha ric and Scarlett apart when they dared to step into Rogue territory-


    It wasn’t mercy.


    It was vengeance served slow.


    They remembered the night Alpha ric, in all his power, had stormed their stronghold, leaving their kin broken in the dirt. To kill him quickly would be too kind. Instead, they chose to keep him breathing… so they could watch him rot.