123- A Truth Drenched in Blood
POV Edric Eldoria:
In the next second, I was in front of Thalira, curling my fingers around her thin neck and lifting her into the air.
“Don’t lie to me,” I hissed.
She wasn’t dealing with me, but with my beast—the animal whose mate had been taken and whose best friend lay dead.
“I’m not lying,” she gasped, struggling to draw air into her lungs.
I pressed harder against her throat, feeling her bones compress. A little more force and I would snap her neck. To my animal side, it was already long overdue. For her sake—or perhaps not—I needed answers only she could give me.
I released her neck, throwing her to the ground with brutality.
“You have two seconds to open your mouth and speak the truth, Thalira, before I lose control completely to my beast and tear your head off.”
She crawled away from me, her brown eyes widening with fear. As my oldest lover, she knew my cruel and chaotic side. And she, like any sane person, wanted no part of facing it.
I exhaled pheromones into the air, drawing from her the purest and deepest terror. She trembled, her skin paling.
“Lunara was ruining our plans. She would destroy our future,” she whispered.
I leaned over her, narrowing my eyes.
“What did you do?”
She sobbed, her lower lip quivering, revealing her fear and her disgust toward me—for the way I was treating her. In all the years we shared, Thalira had received the worst of me until now.
“I did what had to be done. I freed you from that gold-digging bitch.” She squeezed her eyes shut, letting the tears flow freely down her cheeks. “She was ruining everything for us, everything for you. After so long building and conquering so much together.”
A harsh laugh slipped from my lips.
“Is that so, Thalira? And what exactly did we conquer?”
She opened and closed her mouth without producing a single sound, as if unsure what to say.
“Your betrayal cost me my best friend’s life—and may cost mine, if Alessio decides to kill Lunara.”
She shook her head fiercely.
“He won’t! It’s part of the agreement. He would take her and remove her mark, and then you’d be free of the girl.” She pressed her palms against the ground and stood up. “See? I solved things for you. I always do, because I love you, Edric. Is it really so hard to see that truth? Everything I do is for your own good.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose and closed my eyes, inhaling deeply. I was one step away from killing her.
“You acted behind my back, delivered my mate to my greatest enemy, and caused Anton’s death,” I spat, staring at her with pure disgust. “I’m still deciding whether I’ll kill you or send you to the elders’ prison. But whatever I decide won’t be enough to make you suffer the way I want.”
More tears streamed from her eyes.
“No, please. Try to understand. I did everything out of love.”
I shot a glance toward Anton’s body, still unable to accept that his death was a reality I would soon have to face.
I rubbed my hand over my chest, aching from the absence of Lunara’s comforting presence within me.
I faced Thalira again.
“Where did Alessio take Lunara?”
“I don’t know.”
“Your minutes on Earth are numbered, Thalira. Tell the fucking truth, at least once in your life.”
“I am telling the truth. Our agreement didn’t include me knowing her final destination, only that she wouldn’t die, so it wouldn’t harm us.”
I stared at the omega with scorn and revulsion. She had been my companion for a long time. A good companion. Sharing nights with me—good ones and terrible ones—like a friend, someone I had wished to keep close and always respected.
But after everything, I couldn’t see her that way anymore. She was a traitor, a liar, and a manipulator. Any good feeling I had once held for her had evaporated.
She meant nothing to me now. And her death would mean even less.
“I hope you enjoyed your life, because it’s about to end,” I announced, stepping toward her.
She shook her head and stumbled backward, tripping in the snow.
“You can’t do this to me. I did so much for you. You may not love me, but you must feel at least some kind of gratitude.”
“My gratitude ended the moment you betrayed me—costing me my female and causing my best friend’s death.”
“Your female? She was never your female.”
I bared my fangs, curling my lips.
“She means more to me than you ever have,” I said. “Do you think I didn’t notice your pathetic attempts to get me to mate with you these last years? All the times you opened your womb, trying to get pregnant, refusing to stop your heat—everything to get my attention.”
I laughed.
“Lunara didn’t need any of those efforts to win me over.”
She hissed, full of pain and lament.
“You bastard. Ungrateful! I spent most of my life trying to help you, trying to guide you down the right path.”
“And what would ‘the right path’ be?”
“By my side!”
“At no moment, Thalira, in the more than a hundred years we’ve known each other, did I ever consider having you by my side.”
The color drained from her face.
“How dare you, Edric? How dare you treat me with such contempt—all because of some cursed she-wolf who entered your life yesterday, while I’ve been here all this time? You’re going to kill me because of her and forget everything we lived, everything we endured together?”
I nodded.
“Yes, I will kill you for Lunara—for what she will go through in that bastard’s arms. If you thought, even for a second, that I wouldn’t go after her, you’re gravely mistaken.”
“She’s going to remove the mark!”
“And I will make a new one.”
I took more steps, and she stepped farther back.
“I’ll kill you now, as the first act of vengeance for the suffering she’ll endure, and then I’ll go to your new little friend Alessio and wipe out his entire pack.”
She choked, widening her eyes as more tears glistened.
“You… you fell in love with her…” she gasped, as if unable to believe it. “You’re in love with the wolf.”
I said nothing. I wouldn’t deny a truth carved into me.
Thalira collapsed to her knees, wrapping her arms around herself, sobbing with hatred and sorrow.
“Everything I did, all the deaths I caused, all of it to get your attention, to make you fall in love with me, to return my feelings.” She lifted her eyes to mine. “And you always fell for the wrong females, doing everything opposite of what you should.”