17. Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Seventeen
Kara
“ R emove the silver shackles,” I ordered the warriors as I entered the basement dungeons.
Go slow. She’s young. Celeste told me from where she was in the recesses of our mind.
Old enough to try to kill our pup, I growled back at her. I let you play host all afternoon despite her attempted murderer being beneath our feet. You and I know she’s not going to get the punishment she deserves at the hands of the council.
What I’m saying is let her get comfortable before you ramp up the pain. The lesson needs to stick, she clarified, rolling her eyes.
“She needs to be alive and relatively in one piece when the council arrives for her, Mom,” Cory said from behind us.
“Don’t worry, mijo. She won’t have a scratch on her,” I told him in the most placating voice I could muster.
I heard my handsome mate chuckling darkly behind my son, and I turned to look at him. His eyes were black, telling me Markus had let Atlas come out to play with this bitch, too. We wolves were a little more blood-thirsty than humans.
“Why do I feel like that’s all bullshit, Mom?” Cory asked, already knowing how protective we were of our pups.
Even Celeste, who was usually very forgiving, gave no quarter when it came to someone hurting our pups. And especially Violet. Out of all of our pups, there wasn’t one who was sweeter, or had gone through as much trauma as she had.
There was a big put-upon sigh from my first-born, and then addressed the guards, “Do as your former Luna and Alpha requests. It’s bath time, Mom. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
“Don’t limit your mother, son. She already promised the prisoner will be alive and without a single scratch on her,” Atlas reprimanded Cory with a wicked grin on his face.
Stepping down from the alpha title had made my mate a little more loose on having fun and I was all here for it.
“Turn off the cameras,” Cory instructed the warriors, shaking his head at both of us, but I could see the smile he was trying to hide. “And leave some for me. She tried to kill Bug. I want a few words with her, too.”
“That’s my boy,” Atlas chuckled darkly. “Give my grandkids a kiss for us.”
“And squeeze those cheeks for us, too!” I called after Cory as he climbed the stairs.
I waited until the door closed before I turned to look at the woman in the cell. She was rubbing her wrists, but her head was held high, as if she wasn’t going to be intimidated. It was too bad I could smell her fear, though. It was flowing out of every pore in her body, turning the air acrid. I looked over at who had ceded control to Markus.
I’ll come in soon. Have some fun with her first, Celeste told me.
“You first, Tuli.” Markus was ever the gentleman, holding the door to the cell open for me.
I passed by him, letting my fingers graze his lower abdomen, one finger grazing a little further than that. Markus chuckled, a heated look on his face. I knew we were going to have some fun this evening, and even more so, tonight in our bedroom. Teaching a good lesson always put me in the mood.
But later. First, I had to address my pupil.
“You’re the woman who tried to kill my daughter,” I growled.
Ada’s eyes widened, and she looked from me to Markus and the acrid smell of her fear intensified. I took one step forward, and she scuttled like a roach to the back of the cells, holding her hands up in a placating manner.
“Wait. Wait, wait, wait. I didn’t know. I swear. I didn’t know. I wasn’t trying to kill her. She’s a wolf. I just wanted to teach her a lesson.”
“You didn’t know she was the child of an alpha and luna? So, it’s okay to try to kill an omega’s child?” I raged.
“I—I swear, I didn’t know.”
“Didn’t know what?” I growled. “Didn’t know she had a pair of loving parents who wouldn’t like seeing someone hurting her?”
The woman was quiet, and I felt like I had hit the nail on the head. She thought Violet wouldn’t be missed. That no one would bat an eye at having her hurt.
“I didn’t know. She was just so weak. How was I supposed to know her sister was the luna and her parents were ranked,” she whispered, and that pissed me off all the more.
I strode forward, Celeste coming forth until we were sharing control.
“You think my daughter is weak?” she seethed. “You have no fucking idea what she’s been through. Violet is the strongest person you will ever meet in your greedy little life.”
“She barely even has an aura,” Ada continued, and I realized the error of our ways.
This little girl thought she was safe with us because we hadn’t put a hand on her. That was easily remedied. I lifted her up by the throat, letting my nails elongate only a smidgen, so that they dug painfully into her throat but didn’t break skin.
“The things my daughter has gone through would have ended your pathetic little existence.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry!” she cried out, her hands clawing at mine to try to get me to let go.
But that pain was nothing compared to what we’ve been through before, and did nothing to dissuade me from teaching this lesson. Sure, we’d led an easy life since meeting Markus, but we knew we could survive worse than this, and it was enough for the pain to be bearable.
And nothing was going to stop me from teaching this bitch that she didn’t mess with my pups.
I squeezed a little harder around the neck until I saw her turning purple, and then I let her fall to the ground. I turned to Markus, who was smiling proudly at me.
My mate loved when the mama wolf showed herself.
I walked over to him and kissed him hard, loving the way he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close. When we entered, we’d left the cell door open, because really, who would be stupid enough to try to run from a pack house dungeon with an alpha and luna in the room?
Apparently, the answer to that question was Ada, because even as I kissed my mate, I heard her scrambling and then running. Markus pulled back, making me pout, but I backed away and moments later, he had her by the hair.
“How stupid can you be?” he snarled at her. He threw her against the cot in the cell and turned to me.
“Why don’t you start, my love. I’ll step in when things heat up,” I snickered at my punny joke.
Markus chuckled, and I watched Atlas come forward before he winked and turned toward Ada. If I thought she was scared before, the smell of piss that wafted from her direction was proof enough that the lesson would stick, and I would sleep like a baby tonight knowing she would always remember this night.
With women like her, who only listened to their greed, fear was the only way to learn not to covet what they didn’t deserve. I did promise Cory that there wouldn’t be a scratch on her tomorrow, and I meant to keep my promise. But I never said anything about not leaving a few burn scars...
“Now, let’s discuss why you think you deserve to be by Alpha Cade’s side,” Markus and Atlas said as I sat down on a chair to watch my wonderful mate educate.
I would forever be thankful to my sister for waking me up from my slumber and pairing with such amazing males. They were amazing mates and fathers to our pups.
Life was good for us, but after all the suffering our pups had suffered in the last year, I was going to make sure that nothing bad ever touched them. One way or another.