Chapter 257: A Painful Truth

Chapter 257: A Painful Truth
Julian

"She had no idea there was a dungeon under the ground she was standing on. Nobody told the little human she was planning her boyfriend's party right above a prison."

He let out that disgusting laugh again.

I almost wanted to punch him to death right then, but Ethan stepped beside me, his hand on my shoulder, telling me to stay calm and not fall for his tricks.

Nobody told her. The thought sent a fresh wave of guilt through me. Of course nobody told her—we always assumed she didn't need to know because she wasn't going to be a warrior, she just needed to protect herself. But if we had told her, if someone had just mentioned it... would things have been different?

"So there I was," Orion continued, "starving, furious, chained up like an animal below her feet. And this moron starts walking around above my head, babbling about decorations and surprise guests. I couldn't fucking stand it."

He paused, savoring the effect his words were having on me.

"I roared. Loud enough to bring the whole ground down. You know what your brave little mate did? She came down to check. Like she was going to help whatever poor bastard was down there."

Of course she would. Because that's who Clara was—someone who couldn't stand to see anyone in pain.

"I told her I was hungry," Orion said, his voice taking on a mocking, sing-song quality. "Poor little guy, trapped and starving. She actually believed me. She actually felt sorry for me."

Of course she didn't know who Orion was—she only knew she was looking at a prisoner, a monster. Did she remember her own time in captivity? Was that why she pitied Orion? Damn Orion for taking advantage of her.

He shifted position, chains clanking, his eyes never leaving my face as he continued his sick confession.

"But then I got creative. I told her about a little snack I'd had... a few days back. In some poor little community, a whole street packed with people. I went house to house, 'visiting' each family until the whole street was nothing but corpses."

My hands clenched into fists, but I forced myself to stay still. I could feel the tension radiating from everyone around me, but nobody stopped Orion's confession.

"I described every detail," he continued, his voice full of sadistic pleasure. "How the children screamed. How the parents begged for mercy. And then I told her about this one particular house—white picket fence, rose bushes in the front yard, tire swing hanging from an old oak tree."

No.

The word echoed in my mind as I began to understand what was coming next. Clara rarely talked about her human life, but I knew the place Orion was describing was Clara's home.

"No! You're lying! You didn't tell Clara you killed her parents!" I shouted.

Everyone was shocked. Avery gasped: "What? Orion killed Clara's parents?"

Rachel looked heartbroken for Clara.

"But that's when I could see it in her face, when she realized what I was describing," Orion said, his voice dropping to a whisper that somehow sounded more threatening than his roar. "Her childhood home. Her family."

The temperature in the dungeon seemed to drop twenty degrees.

"Her father was brave, I'll give him that," Orion continued conversationally. "Tried to fight me off with a baseball bat. Can you imagine? A human with a wooden stick thinking he could protect his family from something like me."

Tears streamed down my face, but I couldn't look away. I needed to hear this. Clara deserved to have someone witness the truth of what she'd endured.

"But he did one interesting thing before he died. He begged me to find his daughter. Described her perfectly—red hair, blue eyes, freckles on her nose. Said she'd disappeared and he'd been looking for her everywhere. Made me promise to tell her he loved her. Asked if I'd ever... eaten such a little girl..."

Her father's last words. About Clara.

"And that stupid little bitch believed it!" Orion's laughter was deafening. "She actually believed I'd killed her parents! The look on her face when I described her father's final moments—it was beautiful!"

Rage burned through me like wildfire, but before I could move, Orion kept talking.

"That's when she lost it. She started screaming at me, calling me a monster, threatening to kill me herself. Can you believe it? This little human-turned-werewolf thought she could take on something like me."

He described Clara's final moments with malicious glee in his eyes.

"She shifted right there in the dungeon, broke open my cell. Not a full shift—she was too young—but she grew claws and fangs. She came at me like she actually thought she could win."

My vision was starting to turn red at the edges, my wolf pressed against my skin, and I could barely maintain human form. But I had to hear the rest. I had to know exactly how Clara died.

"I'll admit, she surprised me," Orion said, his tone becoming grudgingly respectful. "For someone so young and inexperienced, she put up one hell of a fight."