Chapter 165: Lila's Escape

Lila’s POV

I stood up, dragging the bloodied iron rod across the dungeon floor. The weight of it scraped and screeched against stone, echoing like some dark anthem to my triumph.

Behind me, she lay still…my mother. My puppet. My prey. My mistake that loved me too much. Loved me to death.

Literally.

Her body sprawled awkwardly, hair fanned out in a tangle, face frozen in the moment of betrayal. Her eyes, once soft and pleading, were wide open, staring straight into me as if to ask why. A tear had slid from the corner of her eye just before the light drained from it, cutting a thin trail down her cheek.

Finally, they all will taste my beautiful judgment.

I couldn’t stop myself from replaying the moment. Her cries, her pleas, the desperate way she begged me to stop as I brought the rod down again and again.

“Lila, please… you’re my daughter… please.”

I remembered every crack in her voice, the sharp little gasps between sobs, the way her arms never rose to defend herself even though she could have. She had her wolf. She had strength far beyond mine, but she didn’t use it. She wouldn’t.

Mother’s love, huh?

Fuck that shit.

She let me beat her into submission. She let me win because she couldn’t raise a hand against her “baby.” Such a pathetic hypocrite. That wasn’t love…it was weakness disguised as sacrifice.

Her last words slithered through my ears, cold and mocking even now.

“Lila… tell Aria I’m… tell her I’m so sorry for giving the devil another chance.”

So, Ivy is the angel and I'm supposed to be the devil?

My jaw clenched so hard my teeth ached. Even in death, she chose Aria over me. Even as her skull cracked beneath my blows, her last breath carried Ivy’s cursed name. Aria. The perfect daughter. The saint. The replacement. The one who would always steal what was mine.

When will they ever learn?

I dropped the rod with a clang, leaving her body in a puddle of her own blood. Her eyes locked on me as if they would follow me forever. I stepped over her, my bare feet smearing red streaks on the floor, and slipped through the back exit she had foolishly left open in her need to “save” me.

Her peace talk, her “family reunion” dreams… she could keep them. Or better yet…burn with them in hell.

They could all unite there soon enough. And I would personally send them, one by one, to their graves.

Not gently. Not mercifully. But the way she died.

Wide-eyed. Broken. Stripped of hope.

That was the face I wanted to see. The look of someone finally understanding they’ve lost.

The look of me…winning.

The night air slapped me in the face as I slipped from the dungeon into the cold. For a moment, the world felt too big, too open, after weeks of stone walls and iron bars. But I didn’t linger.

From a distance, I could hear the celebration. Drums, laughter, voices singing in joy. A coronation feast. My coronation once upon a time, in the version of this world where everything went as it should have.

But my nose told me the truth: no trace of Ivy. No Aria here. That meant only one thing…our spineless Alpha had crowned another woman in her place.

Another useless little doll to play Luna while I rotted.

Perfect. Let them celebrate. Let them drink and dance. The fools didn’t even know their “family reunion” had already ended in blood beneath their own walls.

I crouched low, slipping past the shadows. The guards at the edge of the celebration didn’t glance my way, too drunk on wine and festivities to notice the wolf-less cripple escaping into the night.

One hand, one stump, but still faster than them. Still smarter. Still burning with vengeance hotter than their flames.

The forest swallowed me as I darted away, sprinting on bare feet. The undergrowth slashed my ankles, thorns ripping into my flesh, roots catching and tearing skin. I didn’t stop. I didn’t wince.

Every drop of blood I left behind was a vow: I would heal. I would come back. And when I did, I would finish what I started.

My breath rasped loud in my chest, hot and metallic in my mouth. My body shivered with exhaustion, but fury kept me upright.

Minutes stretched into hours as I ran. I couldn’t stop. Not until I had put enough distance between me and the pack. Not until the alarm was raised and hunters came looking.

My father. Yes. He would feel my mother's absence soon. He would sense it. And then the forest would crawl with wolves searching for me.

I pushed harder, stumbling forward in sheer rage. But the edges of my vision blurred, the shadows twisting. I wasn’t sure if it was dehydration, blood loss, or the gnawing madness that had been clawing at me since the cage.

Whispers.

At first faint, like wind between the leaves. Then louder.

Accusations.

Monster.

Murderer.

You killed your own blood.

You’ll never be worthy. Never.

I spun in place, clutching my head with one hand, teeth grinding. “Shut up!” My voice cracked the night. “Stay away from me!”

But the voices swelled, echoing around me, bouncing off unseen mouths.

“You’ll never win, Lila. You’ll always be the shadow. You’ll always be second. Ivy will always take what’s yours.”

“STOP!” I screamed, clawing at my own scalp with my nails until blood welled. “I did what I had to! I did it for ME! For ME!”

Branches whipped against my face as I staggered forward, thrashing like some cornered beast. My breathing turned wild, ragged, uneven. My feet tangled in roots, my body crashing forward again and again.

Still I ran.

I laughed and screamed in the same breath, the sound ugly, dark. A madwoman lost in her own mind.

I imagined their faces everywhere. Peering at me from the bark of trees. Whispering from the ground. Mocking me in the rustle of leaves.

My mother’s eyes haunted me most, glassy and accusing. Every blink replayed that last look, that last tear, her last word.

“Aria…”

I clutched my ears, spinning in frantic circles. “NO! Don’t say her name! Don’t you DARE say her name!”

But the forest did. Again and again.

Aria. Aria. Aria.

The name pressed down on me until the trees themselves leaned in, branches clawing, roots curling around my ankles, the forest chasing me.

I ran in jagged circles, stumbling, screaming until my throat tore. My knees buckled, my body collapsing onto the forest floor. The earth was cold against my cheek, the leaves damp, the smell of rot filling my nose.

I lay there, chest heaving, sweat pouring, my stump throbbing like it was still bleeding. My body trembled, every nerve alive with exhaustion and madness.

And then…silence.

Except for the sound of breath that wasn’t mine.

I froze.

Slowly, my gaze shifted down.

Two feet.

Bare, filthy. Toes caked in dirt, nails blackened. They stood right in front of me, inches from my face.

The forest fell away. My ragged breathing stalled. My body went cold.

Even without looking up, I knew who it was.