Chapter 106: Stop him
Chapter 106: Stop him
(Celeste’s POV)
Each step felt like a lifetime. Marcus’s “lessons” had broken into the very essence of my body. I moved like a puppet with severed strings, held together only by Nina’s strong arms as she guided me through the pack house corridors.
“One more step,” Nina whispered, softer than I’d ever heard her before. Her silver–gray wolf brushed lightly against mine, encouraging, shielding.
The agony in every movement was impossible to ignore. Pain burned through my torn flesh and bloody back. The wolfsbane–laced cuts Marcus had left were throbbing, slow to heal,
ensuring every brush of fabric across my skin felt like fire.
–
I wasn’t sure what kept me conscious – stubborn pride or the lingering memory of Eleanor’s warmth and strength. My wolf whimpered faintly, retreating deeper into me, too exhausted to
fight.
ו
“She…” Nina hesitated, her arm tightening to steady me as I stumbled slightly. “Celeste…” She
stopped, her usually calm voice trembling. “We need Dr. Pierce. Now.”
Her words pulled a new flood of anger and heat into my chest, but all I could do was nod
weakly. My body felt cold and alien, far beyond my control.
Before we could take another step forward, Betty, the pack housekeeper, appeared from around the corner. She walked briskly, her usual no–nonsense aura radiating authority. The moment she saw me leaning heavily against Nina, though, her sharp eyes froze.
“Moon Goddess!” Betty gasped loudly. Her usual stern demeanor fell apart as her gaze locked on the blood soaking through my clothes. “What… what has happened?”
Even though her hands shook faintly, Betty moved closer, examining me with wide eyes. Her wolf suddenly radiated fierce protectiveness, an almost maternal warmth drowning the cool
air around us.
“That blood… the smell of wolfsbane.” Her voice cracked slightly as her eyes narrowed. “And
the silver burns under it all. Only… only one wolf leaves marks like these.”
She didn’t need to say Marcus’s name. It was clear in her trembling voice, in her wolf’s restrained growl.
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Chapter 106: Stop him
Her words caused nearby pack wolves to gather, silent but suffocating. Their eyes darted
between my trembling form and Betty’s horrified expression. The smell of blood hadn’t been
subtle, but now it rippled through them.
It didn’t take long before Victoria stepped out of her chambers, drawn by the murmurs and noises she couldn’t ignore. I felt her maternal wolf freeze instantly as our gazes met.
“Celeste?” she breathed, her hands clenching lightly at her sides. The softness in her tone
might have meant something, had it not been buried beneath the betrayal etched deep into my
chest.
Victoria’s green eyes darted from me to the blood seeping through my clothes. Her expression
crumbled completely. “What… happened in those hunting grounds?”
Before I could answer, Alpha James’s heavy footsteps disrupted the rising tension. His
dominant wolf’s aura washed over the hallway, pressing against all of us. The air grew heavier
by the second.
Even Alpha James’s usually unyielding expression faltered when his sharp eyes took in my
destroyed form. His lips pressed tightly, but he said nothing immediately.
The burning pain in my back pulsed in time with my heartbeat. Each shallow inhale made the
wolfsbane feel sharper against the silver burns. My body felt like it could crumble, but I
refused to sink further.
“Damn it.” Betty’s voice hissed sharply as she adjusted her arms to help Nina support my
weight. She had finally noticed the faint metallic gleam of silver coating my skin under the layers of blood.
“She needs the healing chambers,” she snapped, her tone fierce. “Now! Every second we
waste…”
Her voice trembled at the end, but her steady grip showed her experience dealing with
emergencies like this.
I leaned heavily into their support, refusing to let my gaze fall. I willed myself to focus on
Lucas, who had inexplicably found his way into the hallway.
He stared at me with a mixture of incomprehension and something burning beneath the surface. His typical confident stance was unsteady, his broad shoulders slumped from too
much moon–blessed wine.
Through gritted teeth, I forced a shallow breath and locked my violet eyes firmly onto his.
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Chapter 106: Stop him
“I’ve visited Marcus’s hunting grounds in the Dark Forest,” I said coldly, my voice low but cutting through the tension. A wave of silence rippled through the wolves watching. “Are you satisfied now, Future Alpha?”
The words hit Lucas as effectively as a claw to the chest. His golden eyes widened in near disbelief, and for the first time, the playful smirk I’d come to despise disappeared.
“The… the hunting grounds?” he stammered. His arrogant tone cracked under the weight of
his sudden realization.
His wolf’s aura fractured around him, tearing like shattered glass. Pieces of the truth finally
started sinking into him, into the pack wolves who had all silently pushed me toward Marcus’s
territory.
“You let this happen,” I continued bitterly, watching every flicker of horrified understanding
settle across his features. “You knew where your games would lead me.”
The faint, horrified tremor in Lucas’s voice grew as it hit him like a rushing flood. “No… not the
torture den.” His golden eyes darted wildly to the floor.
“Fourteen,” he murmured, almost choking on the word. A sharp sound built in his throat,
halfway between a growl and an internal scream. “Fourteen wolves disappeared there… and
now-”
I didn’t know if it was guilt or rage breaking Lucas apart, but something shifted violently when
James finally barked.
“Dr. Pierce!” The Alpha’s voice carried raw power, commanding the gathered wolves to act
immediately. “Summon him! Now!”
I barely took notice of the sharp movements that followed. The healer’s arrival, his pale
expression upon examining the blood cutting across my body.
“Silver marks…” Dr. Pierce said weakly, lowering himself closer. His trembling hands shifted to brush faintly along the edge of a wolfsbane–laced scar. “I… I’ve seen these before.”
Dr. Pierce looked up, his usually calm demeanor blurred by the sharpness of his grief–stricken
wolf. “No… no, these wounds…” His voice cracked.
On instinct, I answered for him. “Marcus,” I said simply. The truth carried its weight, but I was
beyond caring.
Some wolves near me shifted in disbelief. Others, like Betty, clearly weren’t surprised. Their
auras blurred with subtle acknowledgment of rumors left unspoken too long.
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Chapter 106: Stop him
Only one figure didn’t speak, didn’t breathe. Lucas remained utterly frozen in place, his fists clenching. His entire body shook faintly as something inside him began to snap. His wolf’s energy was spiraling, growing heavier with every passing moment.
Before I could fully determine what was happening, Betty and Nina shifted positions, dragging me carefully toward the healing chambers.
I was too weak to resist their help, leaning into Betty’s experienced grip and Nina’s protective wolf. I heard them murmuring softly under their breaths about dressing my wounds quickly.
But nothing mattered in that moment when I twisted slightly to look over my shoulder. Lucas didn’t move.
Instead, his golden eyes burned like fire, glued to the blood drops marking my path through the moonstone floor. They gleamed eerily under the lights, the crimson path straight and
impossible to ignore.
Something feral overtook him. His wolf howled deeply inside his chest, bursting outward in a
cry I hadn’t heard since our childhood. Rage. Pure and broken rage.
In that sound, something new revealed itself–remorse, danger, destruction.
Through the fading traces of our pack bonds, I could sense it crackling like distant storms. Lucas’s fury was rupturing, beyond anything even he seemed to understand.
It wasn’t just anger. It was recognition. Finally, he saw.
Marcus had taken me to that place. That filthy den where fourteen others hadn’t returned
alive.
Scarlett stepped closer to Lucas before recoiling visibly from the storm engaging in his wolf.
For a brief second, her perfectly painted expression faltered into something raw.
She clutched at Sarah, her personal guard, her voice cracking with real panic. “Find…
Alexander. Now!”
The words surprised even me. Scarlett’s wolf rarely showed true fear, but now her emerald eyes darted wildly between Lucas and the blood–streaked floor.
“He’s the only one,” she whispered, turning toward Sarah with desperate urgency. “He’s the only one who might stop him before-”
Sarah nodded firmly, immediately rushing toward the direction of the training grounds.
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