Chapter 24 Chapter 24
Anya’s POV
"Oh, stop wailing, she's breathing," Beatrice sneered, her voice cold and bored. "She's too weak to be anything but alive."
Before I could get to Carla, Beatrice's hand shot out and clamped onto my arm, her fingers like a steel trap.
She yanked me to my feet, her strength effortless. Tears of terror and rage streamed down my face as I was forced to confront her.
"You..." she hissed, "You're crawling under my skin. You're stealing him from me."
Her open palm connected with my cheek, a brutal, stinging slap that sent me stumbling back into her unyielding grip.
"I am supposed to be the crowned Luna of this pack!" she screamed, her voice shaking with a fury she could no longer contain. "My bloodline, my power... everything was aligned!"
Another slap, just as hard, striking the same spot. I cried out, my cheekbone throbbing, my vision swimming.
"But then you crawled out of the mud!" she seethed. "You, this... this whore! You are the reason my coronation is delayed!"
Her control finally snapped. Her silver eyes flashed, and I heard a sickening snikt as her fingernails elongated, sharpening into black, curved talons.
"I should just tear that pretty, pathetic face right off your skull," she whispered. She raised her clawed hand, the sharp points glinting, aiming right for my eyes.
I squeezed my eyes shut, a pathetic, choked sob my only defense.
But the killing blow never landed.
I felt her hand freeze, just an inch from my face. I dared to open my eyes. She was breathing hard, her claws still extended, but a slow, cunning smile was spreading across her lips.
"No..." she whispered, almost to herself. She let out a low, cold chuckle. "He'd see the marks. He'd be so angry."
She leaned in, her voice a poisonous taunt. "Not because I hurt you, little fool. But because I damaged his new toy."
She retracted her claws, her smile vanishing, "But he doesn't have to see everything to know how fragile you are."
Before I could react, her hand shot out and clamped around my throat, not hard enough to choke me, but to hold me perfectly still. With her other hand, she seized my shoulder.
"He won't see this," she whispered.
And then she squeezed.
An agonizing, crushing pain erupted in my shoulder, as if her fingers were a vise, trying to shatter the bone.
A scream tore from my throat as I felt a sickening pop. It was a pain so intense it stole my breath, but there would be no cut, no claw mark—just a deep, debilitating bruise hidden by my dress.
"Or this," she hissed and shoved me.
I slammed backward, my head hitting the stone wall with a dull thud. I collapsed next to Carla's unconscious form, my vision spotting, my shoulder screaming in agony.
Beatrice loomed over me, smoothing her dress, not a hair out of place.
"You think you survived one night in his bed?" she sneered. "You won't survive a week in this pack. I will break you, you little human bitch. And he will never even know it was me."
My vision was blurred, a dark, swirling fog. The last thing I remembered was Beatrice's face, the agonizing pop in my shoulder, and the sickening thud of my head hitting the wall.
Then... nothing.
Now, a gentle pressure was stroking the side of my face—a hand.
I gasped, my body reacting before my mind could. I shot up in a blind panic, scrambling backward until I hit a carved wooden headboard.
I wasn't in the garden. I was back in his bed. In his chamber.
My eyes finally focused. Alpha Kai was sitting on the edge of the bed, his hand, the one that had been touching me, frozen in the air.
He let out a slow, quiet sigh, the tension visibly leaving his shoulders as he saw me awake.
But the relief was gone in an instant, replaced by that familiar, cold seriousness. His eyes narrowed.
"I told you," he said, "that you were to stay by my side. Why did you run off again?"
I didn't run away! I wanted to scream. She attacked me! She attacked Carla!
I opened my mouth to defend myself, to tell him what happened, but nothing came out. Only a dry, rasping puff of air. A sharp, searing pain shot through my throat.
Oh gods. My eyes widened. Beatrice. Her hand on my neck... she hadn't just held me. She'd crushed me. I couldn't speak. I couldn't even make a sound.
Kai's expression darkened, his impatience growing. "Why are you not talking?" he demanded.
I shook my head frantically, my panic rising. I grabbed his hand—the one he'd used to caress me—and turned it palm-up. My fingers were trembling so hard I could barely control them.
I began to trace letters onto his skin, my touch desperate.
He watched, his brow furrowed, whispering the letters aloud as I formed them.
"I... C-A-N-T..." He paused, his gaze lifting to mine, a shadow of understanding dawning. "...S-P-E-A-K."
He stared at the words I'd traced, then at my face, his expression completely unreadable. A long, tense silence stretched between us.
"WHO DID THIS TO YOU?!"