Chapter 280 Broken Bonds

Chapter 280 Broken Bonds

TRISTAN

Livia refused to speak, even after Daniel had worked on her, she kept her mouth shut. She wouldn’t give up the name of the person pulling her strings, and it was becoming obvious why: she was being controlled, a puppet on a string dancing to someone else’s tune.

But I was finished playing games. If she thought she could demand to see me and trade a few words for leniency, she was dead wrong.

I hadn’t told Yelena that it was Livia who had attacked me instead of her.

If I had, my Luna would have insisted on dragging her through the pack’s brutal judicial process, and that would have killed any chance of finding the true enemy lurking in the shadows.

I reached the holding cells, the heavy air thick with the metallic tang of blood and damp stone.

The guards bowed as I approached, and one scrambled to slide the heavy iron bolt back. The door groaned open, revealing the chamber.

Livia was hanging from the ceiling, her wrists locked in silver chains that hissed against her skin. The metal burned, a slow, agonizing poison to a wolf. Her hair was matted with sweat and filth, her chin tucked against her chest. She looked broken, but when she heard my shoes hit the concrete, she lifted her head. Her eyes were dull, rimmed with red.

"Tristan," she rasped, her voice trembling. She looked at me, a desperate, pathetic light flickering in those eyes. "You… you came. I knew you would."

I didn’t offer comfort. I didn’t offer a kind look. I kept my face hard. "I’m here because you said you’d give me a name. That’s the only reason you aren’t still screaming for mercy."

She gave a slow, sluggish nod. "I know, and I’ll tell you, but you have to take these chains off. My hands… they’re burning, Tristan. Please."

I held up a finger, cutting her off before she could sink her claws into the emotional angle. "Don’t. Don’t you dare try to play me. I’ve known you too long to fall for your tricks."

A strange, sad smile pulled at her cracked lips. "You know me? You really don't," she whispered.

I took a step toward the door, my patience snapping. "Fine. If you want to keep playing, I’m done. I’ll tell Daniel to come back in here. He’ll make sure you don't sleep, you don't eat, and you don't stop screaming until that name falls out of your mouth."

She cut me off, her voice suddenly sharp, cutting through the damp air.

"And if I die, the woman you love dies with me!" She gasped, her chest heaving as if the effort of shouting was draining the last of her life. "Her enemy won't stop. She won't stop until she sees her end, even if I'm rotting in the ground. You’ll never find her, and she’ll never be safe."

I froze.

She was right. That realization hit me harder than any blow.

The threat wasn't just Livia; she was just a tool. If I didn't get a name, the target on Yelena’s back would remain invisible.

She watched the shift in my expression, seeing the wall of my resolve crack. "So, you do as I say," she mocked, a bitter, broken sound. "If you really want to save your precious Luna, you’ll listen to me."

I stood there, the silence in the cell heavy as a tomb. I didn't want to touch her, but I didn't have a choice. I stepped forward, and the guards instinctively moved to stop me, but I signaled them back with a sharp flick of my hand. Stay out.

I reached for the shackles. The silver seared my own palms, but I ignored it, unclasping the left, then the right.

The moment the locks clicked open, her body went limp. I caught her, the sudden weight of her collapsing frame driving me down onto one knee. She slumped against my thighs, her head lolling back.

She looked up at me, staring into my eyes with an intensity that made my stomach churn. "This was all I wanted," she whispered. "Just to be held by you when I finally let go."

Before I could react, before my brain could even process the movement, her hand shot up. She wasn't holding a weapon, she had hidden a small, sharpened shard of metal somewhere, concealed in the grime.

In one fluid, desperate motion, she drove it into her own chest.

I felt the warm spray of blood against my shirt. My grip tightened, shaking her. "Livia! No! Look at me!"

She coughed, a thick, bubbling sound, and dark red flooded over her lips. She was looking at me, her eyes glassing over, but that same, sad smile remained.

"I was going to be sentenced to death anyway," she wheezed, blood spilling down her chin. "This way… It’s cleaner. My mother doesn't have to watch them hang me in the square. The public doesn't get their show."

"Don't do this," I growled, pressing my hand against the wound, trying to stop the flow, but it was useless. "You shouldn't have taken the law into your own hands. You had a choice."

"But you wouldn't have… You wouldn't have released me, would you?" She coughed again, her body growing colder against my legs. "I know you, Tristan. You don't love me. You never will again. This is where the bond ends and as for Yelena… I don't wish her well. She took you from me... But it was Doctor Selene. She’s the one who ordered the hit. She’s her sworn enemy."

I leaned in, my heart hammering against my ribs. "What? Doctor Selene? Are you talking about the doctor at our pack hospital?"

She shook her head, her movements becoming increasingly erratic and weak. "No… she’s at… Cres… cent… Pack…"

Her eyes rolled back, her head slumped against my chest and she went still. The last breath hissed out of her, leaving nothing but the heavy, suffocating silence of the cell.

I held her for a long moment, staring at the cooling corpse in my arms. The anger surged, hot and wild, but I forced it down, locking it away. I laid her body gently on the concrete floor.

"Doctor Selene at Crescent Pack," I muttered, my voice echoing off the stone walls. I stood up, wiping the blood from my hands onto my pants. "It’s today I’ll find out exactly who the hell is hiding behind that name."