Chapter 111: A Wolf’s Bitter Awa…
Chapter 111: A Wolf’s Bitter Awakening
Chapter 111: A Wolfs Bitter Awakening
(Celeste’s POV)
It took all my strength to keep breathing. Each inhale was like dragging air through broken. glass. Pain coursed through my body, sharp and unrelenting. Yet, it was nothing compared to the poisonous ache in my chest, the rage and betrayal I carried like an anchor.
The door opened with a drawn–out creak. The sound made me flinch, though my body lacked the strength to move further. My head turned slightly, just enough to see who had entered.
Victoria walked in first. She moved slowly, her shawl clinging to her frame as though weighing her down. Her head dipped slightly, her green eyes fixed on me. For a moment, she froze in the doorway, her expression crumbling with something close to grief.
Behind her, Scarlett trailed. Her steps were light, unhurried. For someone who claimed to care, there was no urgency on her face. Her emerald eyes filled quickly, shimmering as though ready to spill tears. Yet even in my weakened state, I saw through it–the calculated sadness,
the act.
Victoria stepped closer, so close I could smell the faint lavender of her perfume. She dropped to her knees by the bed with a strange elegance, looking up at me like I was a fragile piece of
glass.
“Celeste,” she whispered, her voice trembling. “You’re awake.”
I didn’t respond. My head turned sharply away from her. My body screamed from the effort,
but the stubbornness outweighed the pain.
Her breath hitched, and I heard her shuffle closer.
“Three nights,” she breathed. The words were soft, broken, as though each one carried unbearable weight. “Three nights I stayed awake, praying to the Moon Goddess for your
recovery.”
The sound of her voice scraped against my nerves. I clenched my fists weakly by my sides
and refused to look at her.
She sniffled audibly, leaning closer as her trembling hands wrung the edges of the shawl around her shoulders. “You must know,” she continued, her voice cracking, “how much I regret…” She stopped, as though unable to finish her sentence.
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Chapter 111: A Wolfs Bitter Awa…
It wasn’t regret. It was performance. Every word, every movement, reeked of desperation to
atone without truly acknowledging what had been done.
。
Scarlett took a step forward then, her delicate hands clasped in front of her chest. “Sister,” she
said softly, her voice like a slow melody lined with falseness. “Our wolves have been keening every night for you. We could hardly bear the pain.”
I turned my head ever so slightly, just enough to glance at her through the corner of my vision. Her words clung in the air, brittle and hollow.
“Sister?” I rasped, my voice breaking over the word. It burned my throat to speak, but the bitterness in my chest drove me forward. “You have the nerve to call me that?”
Scarlett blinked, her emerald eyes widening as though my words had struck her physically. She clutched her chest as if wounded. “Of course,” she said, her voice trembling. “You have and always will be—”
“Stop,” I cut her off. My voice barely made it above a whisper, but the force behind the word
silenced her.
Victoria’s breathing grew heavier beside me. I didn’t need to look at her to know she was
shaking.
“Celeste, please,” she whispered. Her hand hovered near mine as if she wanted to hold it but didn’t dare. “I know I failed you. I know…” Her voice shook harder now. “But I am your mother
still, and I cannot bear to see you in this state.”
Her words ignited something hot in my chest–a rage I was too tired to carry but couldn’t extinguish. Mother. She dared to use that word after everything I had endured.
I lifted my violet eyes to her, my gaze sharp despite the haze of pain. “You knew,” I rasped, each syllable cutting through the room like a blade.
Her brows furrowed, and her lips trembled as she shook her head weakly. “No,” she whispered,
low and broken. “I didn’t know-”
“You knew!” I growled, my voice rising slightly despite the agony it brought. My vision blurred, but I refused to let the tears fall. “You knew what he is. What he does. And still, you sent me to
Marcus!”
Victoria flinched, her green eyes filling with tears that spilled freely. She reached for my hand again, but I pulled it back weakly. The effort stole what little strength I had left, but I didn’t
care.
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Chapter 111: A Wolf’s Bitter Awa…
“Celeste, forgive me,” she begged. Her wolf whined audibly behind her, its energy pressing
against mine in desperation. “I prayed–to the Moon Goddess–I prayed that… I could take your
place.”
The bitterness in my throat rose, choking me. “Prayers don’t undo scars,” I said coldly.
“You don’t understand!” she cried. Her tears flowed freely now, staining her shawl as her shaky
hands went to her face. “I couldn’t–The Alpha King’s decree—!”
“I do understand,” I hissed, though my voice trembled with exhaustion. “You chose obedience
over me. Don’t pretend it was anything else.”
Scarlett stepped forward again, her hand outstretched toward me. “Sister,” she whispered, her
voice soft and pleading. “You’re wrong to think we-”
“Do not speak,” I snapped, cutting her off harshly.
Her emerald eyes widened with a flash of hurt–real or fake, I couldn’t tell anymore. She
recoiled slightly but quickly moved closer again, determined.
“Sister, please,” she tried again, her voice trembling with what sounded like genuine emotion.
Mother’s wolf–my wolf–our wolves have cried for you every day. This pack feels your pain as
if it were our own-”
The bile rose so quickly in my throat that I thought I might retch. “Enough,” I croaked, though
my voice wavered.
Before I could muster another word, Nina’s voice sliced through the air like a whip.
“That’s enough!”
The room fell silent. Scarlett stepped back suddenly, startled by the sharp tone.
Nina moved forward, her silver–gray wolf radiating protective energy so strong it pressed on
everyone in the room. Her sharp eyes flickered to me first before she turned her full attention
to Victoria and Scarlett.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Nina said bluntly. Her voice carried none of the usual deference a guard was expected to show.
Victoria’s lips parted in shock, and Scarlett visibly stiffened.
Nina’s wolf surged forward as she placed herself fully between me and them. “Lady Celeste’s wounds are still fresh. Her wolf is weak, and your presence only agitates her further.”
Victoria’s wolf whimpered softly, but Scarlett’s bristled. Her emerald eyes narrowed.
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Chapter 111: A Wolf’s Bitter Awa…
“How dare you,” Scarlett started, but Nina wasn’t finished.
“She is bleeding through her bandages!” Nina snapped, her hand gesturing sharply towards
the floor where fresh blood pooled beneath me. “And you want to stand here and perform
concern like it will fix anything?”
Dr. Pierce chose that moment to step forward, his calm voice adding weight to Nina’s words.
The guard is right.” He adjusted his stance as he set down fresh bandages and medical
supplies, his hands moving swiftly yet carefully over my wounds. “Lady Celeste’s condition is
critical. Stress will only worsen her recovery.”
Scarlett’s emerald eyes flared with anger as she rounded on Nina. “You forget your place,
guard,” she hissed, her wolf’s aggressive energy sparking like a flame in the room.
Nina’s gaze didn’t waver. “My place,” she said calmly, her voice steady, “is protecting her. If
that means keeping you out, so be it.”
Scarlett’s lips pressed into a thin line before she took a deliberate step forward. Her emerald
eyes burned into Nina’s as her claws slowly extended.
“You’ve overstepped,” Scarlett said coldly. Her tone was dripping with venom now, her wolf
surging aggressively as she raised her clawed hand toward Nina.
The movement was too quick for anyone else to intervene.
But my body moved instinctively.
I didn’t feel the pain as much as the searing defiance coursing through my veins. My hand snapped upward, striking Scarlett across the face with enough force to echo throughout the
room.
The sound was sharp, final.
Scarlett recoiled violently, her claws frozen in the air. Her perfect cheek turned crimson where
my palm had connected, and her emerald eyes widened in pure shock.
My voice broke through the silence, low and hoarse but unyielding.
“Touch my guard,” I rasped, each word trembling with both pain and fury, “and I will show you
what real silver burns feel like.”
As the words left my mouth, fresh blood dripped from my reopened wounds. It slid down my back, staining the moonstone floors beneath me.
I swayed slightly from the effort, my vision blurring around the edges. My breathing grew
shallow, but I refused to let myself falter.
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Chapter 111: A Wolf’s Bitter Awa…
Scarlett’s hand pressed against her cheek as if she couldn’t quite believe what had just happened. Her emerald eyes stared at me, wide and uncertain, as the silence in the room seemed to stretch endlessly.
For the first time, she looked shaken in a way I’d never seen before.
And as exhausted as I was, as much as my body screamed in pain, the sight of her perfect face marked by my hand made it all worth it.
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