Chapter 40
A FINAL ACT OF RETRIBUTION
NIA
Somehow, I’m running deeper into the woods. I duck, certain there’s a low-lying branch ahead of me and I’m right, but this feels very, very wrong. I know exactly where I am and I don’t understand why Carrie’s letting me get away from here.
She’s chasing me down, but she hasn’t shifted.
Her wolf is probably stronger than mine and it’s certainly faster than me.
I push harder, ignoring the burn in my legs and aching in my chest. I’m breathing hard, sucking air into my lungs to do more than meet my oxygen need. Will’s death is hard to ignore and the guilt clawing away at me is becoming difficult to bear.
But I’ve got to, because otherwise that bitch will catch me and then I’ll be in fucking trouble.
Carrie’s faster than me and my days of confinement aren’t helping.
My legs hurt and I ignore the shit out of all their protests as I push harder, tearing through the bushes and undergrowth like my life depends on it.
I can hear her behind me, her breathing closing in on me even though she isn’t, and every goddamn cell in my body screams that she’s up to something worse than I imagined.
“You can’t escape,” she screams, her voice a shrill shriek that sounds like nails running down a blackboard. “You’re going to beg for death by the time I’m finished with you.”
Like fuck I will.
The cold air tears through my throat as I push on, racing past the trees and into the darkness. Every branch that strikes me feels like a clawed hand scraping my skin and slowing me down. But I can’t stop if I want to live. Not until I’ve found somewhere safe to hide or someone to protect me.
Goddess only knows where Luke is but I can’t reach him.
I’ve called again and again, and Lyall roused and called to Lawson.
The deafening silence that replied confirmed we’re alone and that Luke’s either too far away to hear me or my father’s severed our bond.
Several poisons weaken the connection and my father’s clearly well-versed in their use.
Lyall’s faint snarl reaches me through the darkness, her voice muffled by the poison. Her usual strength is gone, buried beneath a haze of pain. I search for her, trying to summon her, but my head spins and all I get is a flash of her teeth, a ghost of a growl.
I stumble through some bushes and almost trip on a tree root, forced to scramble over the ground. I’m tiring, but something’s changing. Something’s shifting. The aches in my muscles dull a little and my breathing eases, growing steadier with every stride.
I’m working harder, moving faster—and instead of growing weaker, I’m getting stronger.
The burn in my lungs fades, and the chill that clung to my skin loosens its grip. My wolf’s presence stirs a low and simmering warmth that spreads through my veins like brandy on a cold winter’s night. Her heart pulses with mine, its beat growing stronger, sounder, and more sure of itself.
And Lyall is seething.
“Keep moving, Nia.”
I run, harnessing the joy I feel to drive me forward.
Lyall’s recovering and fast too, and all I have to do is hold out long enough for her to regain her strength.
Carrie needs to think I’m weak and pathetic, and if I can make her believe I’m stalling for time before she kills me, rather than biding my time until my wolf eviscerates her.
“Calling for your mate, Nia?” Carrie’s voice, laced with mockery, scrapes against my ears like the edge of a knife. “Did you really think he’d come for you?”
She’s too close for comfort but I’m going to have to let her get closer if this is going to work, and I slow, despite every instinct in me screaming it’s the wrong thing to do.
“It’s going to be okay, Nia.”
Yet again, I wish I had Lyall’s confidence.
My wolf grows surer of herself with every passing second and another pulse of anger washes over me, its strength more potent than the last. My wolf asks me to trust her—to believe in her and what we are together—and I close my eyes and let myself do the thing I’ve rarely done before.
There’s only one way out of this, one damn near impossible way out. I’ve got to trust myself and I’ve got to trust Lyall, and I make the choice I’ve almost always been too damn scared to make.
“Good girl,” Lyall whispers. “Now, pretend to fall over or something. Not too dramatic. Not too fucking hard either.”
I roll my eyes and pretend my foot catches on a root, stumbling to the ground and hitting the forest floor with a thud that rattles my bones. The wound in my side screams in pain and I bite back a wince, forcing myself to stay down longer than necessary before appearing to struggle to my feet.
“I said don’t land too fucking hard,” Lyall growls.
“You try falling over in the dark,” I hiss back.
My breaths stay shallow and I pretend to struggle against the weight of the poison and the pain from my wound.
My footsteps grow as heavy and ungraceful as the ones crashing toward me through the undergrowth and I try to look frantic as Carrie approaches.
She’s not even trying to mask her approach, confident of her victory and her arrogance is about to be her undoing.
“Wait for my signal,” Lyall growls. “Hold, Nia. Don’t shift too soon.”
My mind reels, nausea twisting in my gut. This is a dangerous game and I’m left with little choice but to play it, hoping I’m better at it than the girl who used to be my best friend.
The thudding feet thunder through the undergrowth and overtake me, and I stop as her shadow emerges from behind some trees. Carrie’s triumphant laugh echoes around us as she closes in on me, the evil glint of her smile lighting up the darkness enveloping us like a shroud.
“Nia, Nia, Nia,” she taunts, drawing out my name like it’s an offense. “Your mate abandoned you for being weak and pathetic. He’s left you here to rot and look at you now. Crawling through the mud like the filthy bitch you know you are. Just die already and put us out of our fucking misery.”
She flicks her auburn hair and I stagger around, pretending to search for a way out of here.
“You know,” she muses, almost thoughtful, “this would have been so much easier if your wolf died like it was supposed to. A few drops of wolfsbane and silver in your tea ought to have killed the damn thing off, but your father clearly didn’t get the goddamn dosage right.
” She shakes her head like I’m a child who’s disappointed her.
“Goddess only knows why he wouldn’t increase the dose.
I told him it wasn’t working but he wouldn’t have it. Now, I have to do this the hard way.”
The truth falls from her lips like venom, each word a drop of acid that burns my soul as it spills into the dark.
“Carrie…”
“Don’t beg,” she snaps. “Don’t be even more pathetic than you already are. You’re so feeble, Nia. You didn’t even realize what was happening. You never even tried to fight back. Goddess, you’re completely incapable of being a Luna. Fuck knows why anyone would think you’d give them strong heirs.”
I step back and my stomach tightens, bracing for a punch it’s sure she’s going to deliver.
“I should’ve done this sooner. It would have been kinder, for everyone. You’d be out of the way and I’d be Luna, as I always should have been.”
“You can still be Luna…”
“SHUT UP.”
Carrie’s expression sharpens, her wolf lurking just beneath the surface, ready to break free.
The cruel smile that stretches across her face is vicious, a twisted mockery of the beauty I once saw in her.
It warps her features, turning them into something cold and ruthless—nothing like the friend I used to know.
“I’m going to be Luna, and my children will rule this pack. Not yours. Mine, Nia. I don’t care what Bastan wants, I don’t care what he thinks is best. You’re not strong enough to bear his heirs and I won’t let you take my future from me.”
I swallow back the wave of revulsion surging up my throat. Goddess, it’s disgusting. It’s appalling. It’s so wrong that my head starts spinning and my feet move as dizziness takes hold. I’m barely sentient and the madness of what she’s saying has me shaking my head like a goddamn lunatic.
“Don’t give her what she fucking wants, Nia. You stand and you fucking wait for me,” Lyall hisses, her hackles rising as she readies herself to attack. “Wait for me, Nia. Just hold on.”
“You’re good for nothing, Nia. You’re not even good enough to be a fucking breeder. Look at you. Nothing but a cheap and worthless whore your mate’s abandoned to their fate.”
I take another ragged breath and Carrie steps closer.
“I mean, why would anyone even want to fuck you? I was going to make it easy for you, Nia. I’d have made sure you weren’t conscious for the worst of it.
I'd have made sure Bastan drugged you and let you believe it was your partners. But you had to keep resisting, you just wouldn’t follow the goddamn plan.
You don’t deserve to carry your Alpha’s heirs and I won’t let you. ”
The madness of her words spins through my mind, making everything tilt, the world unsteady beneath my feet. I force myself to still, to keep my breaths even, and give Lyall the time and space she needs.
“I don’t want…”
“I don’t give a shit about what you want, you filthy piece of trash.
” Carrie steps closer, her eyes wild with a manic glee.
“Bastan told me everything, you know. How an Alpha line needs strong pups, how he couldn’t risk any more failures.
You’re not good enough for him, Nia, just like your whore of a mother.
She couldn’t give him the heir he needed and she tried to run off like a traitor.
Your mother was a whore and you’re no better. ”
“A little longer, Nia”
I groan and Carrie’s eyes narrow, mistaking my disgust for what I’m about to hear for weakness. For surrender.