Chapter 23 #2
“From the beginning.” Ryker moves toward me. “And this is why my father and I were pushing for me to mate you, Violet. To get you away from this pack before anyone else figured it out.”
The air leaves my lungs in a rush.
“But even you didn’t even seem to know what you were.” His voice turns bitter as he kneels beside me, reaching for my chains. “And you just couldn’t see past Darius.”
I exchange a look with my mother. She has gone pale, her eyes wide with what looks like either fear or sudden comprehension.
A faint sound echoes from somewhere in the distance. Metal rubbing against stone. Voices, low and indistinct.
Ryker’s head whips around toward the corridor, his entire body going rigid. “Shit.”
“What is it?” I breathe.
“The guard rotation.” He fumbles with the key at my chains, his hands shaking. “I thought I’d have longer, but they’re here early.”
The voices grow louder. Much closer than before. Boots on stone, getting nearer with every step.
“I’ve got maybe thirty seconds, a minute tops.” Ryker’s jaw clenches as he struggles with the lock on my wrists. “Not enough time for both of you. I can only get one of you out and down the servants’ passage before they see us.”
My heart stops. “My mother.”
“What?” He looks up at me, confused.
“Take my mother.” The words come out fiercely. “Not me.”
“No, Violet.” He shakes his head, turning back to my chains. “I came for you.”
“Ryker, please.” I pull the chains away from him, and they bite into my already raw wrists. “Take her.”
“Violet, stop this.” My mother’s whisper cuts through the cell. “I am not leaving you here.”
“She’s Alaric’s mate, Ryker. The betrayal will make them savage,” I explain desperately. “They’ll make her suffer more than they will me. They’ll torture her for days before they kill her. I can’t watch that. I can’t let that happen.”
The voices in the corridor grow clearer. There’s a burst of laughter.
Ryker abandons my chains and moves to my mother. “We don’t have time for this.”
“No.” My mother pulls away from him as much as her chains allow. “Take Violet. Take my daughter.”
“Mom, please.” I lean forward as far as I can. “You have to go. I need you to be safe.”
“I’m not leaving my daughter to die.” Tears stream down her face. “Not again. I won’t lose another child.”
Her words shatter something inside my chest. But I force myself to stay firm. “You won’t lose me.”
“They’re going to kill you.” Her voice breaks on a sob. “How can you ask me to leave?”
“Because I need you to survive.” My own tears spill over. “Please, Mom. Please.”
Ryker works frantically at my mother’s chains, his movements urgent. “I killed two guards to get in here. When they’re discovered, security will increase. I won’t be able to come back for you, Violet.”
The truth in his words jolts me, but I nod. “I know.”
“Then I’m staying.” My mother jerks her chains back. “Take Violet. Please, take my daughter.”
“No.” I shake my head violently. “She has suffered enough, Ryker. She watched her mate and her son die. She can’t die, too. Please.”
The footsteps are getting louder now. Any moment, the guards will be close enough to hear us.
Ryker looks between us, his face twisted with anguish. His hands pause on my mother’s chains. “Violet—”
“Take her.” My voice breaks. “Please. I’m begging you.”
My mother makes a despairing sound. “I can’t leave you. I can’t.”
“You have to.” I meet her eyes, willing her to understand. “You have to survive. For both of us.”
“Violet—”
But Ryker has already made his decision. He strikes my mother on the side of the head. The sound cracks through the cell.
“No!” I lunge forward, but the chains snap me back.
My mother slumps sideways, unconscious. Ryker catches her before she hits the ground.
“Why did you—”
“She wouldn’t have come willingly.” He works frantically at her lock. “And we’re out of time.”
The chains fall away from my mother’s wrists. Ryker lifts her easily, cradling her against his chest. He looks at me over her limp form, his eyes filled with regret.
“Protect her,” I tell him fiercely. “Get her as far away from here as possible.”
“I will.” He reaches the doorway and pauses. The voices are very close now. His eyes meet mine one last time. “I would have protected you, Violet. Loved you. You would have been safe with me.”
My throat tightens. “I know.”
He studies my face for as long as he can, like he’s trying to memorize it. Then, he turns and disappears into the shadows of the corridor, my mother in his arms.
I stare after him, at the wide-open cell door that may as well be locked shut, because I’m still chained to the wall.
Three guards burst in, armed and furious. Their shouts echo off the stone.
“The cell is open!”
“One of the hybrid women is gone!”
The first man reaches me in two strides and backhands me across the face.
My head snaps to the side. Pain explodes across my cheekbone, sharp and hot. Blood fills my mouth.
“Where did she go?” He grabs my hair, yanking my head back. “Who helped you?”
I don’t answer. Can’t answer. The words are somewhere far away, buried under the weight of everything crashing down on me.
A kick lands on my ribs. The impact steals my breath. I gasp, trying to pull air into my lungs, but my body won’t cooperate.
“Answer me!” The guard shakes me hard enough that my teeth clack together.
Someone stomps on my shin. The bone splits with a sickening sound. This time I do scream, the sound tearing from my throat before I can stop it.
“That’s more like it.” The guard grabs my face, forcing me to look at him. “Now, tell us who helped the other hybrid escape.”
The scream was involuntary, ripped from me by pure agony. But I have nothing to say. No answers to give.
“Where is she?” He shakes me. “Who was it? Answer me!”
I’m retreating inward, folding into myself like a paper crane, smaller and smaller until there’s nothing left for them to reach.
Another blow lands somewhere. My stomach, maybe. Or my face. It doesn’t matter anymore.
They’re still shouting. Still hitting. But I’m not listening. Not feeling. I’ve built walls inside my mind, thick and impenetrable, and I’ve locked myself behind them where their fists and their rage can’t touch me.
The pain is there. Distant. Muffled. Like it’s happening to someone else’s body while I watch from very far away.
My head snaps back. Forward. To the side. My body moves with each impact, a ragdoll in their violent hands. But I’m not there. I’ve left them with an empty shell.
“She’s not responding.” One of them sounds frustrated. Angry. “Get the Alpha. And bring the iron rods. Maybe they’ll make her talk.”
Footsteps retreat. Two of the men leave. One remains. He hits me one more time, and I feel my body jerk, feel something wet on my face. Blood, probably.
Then, he spits at my feet and walks to the far corner of the cell, muttering curses.
Silence.
Deep in my mind, my wolf whimpers. She’s terrified, trapped behind whatever magic is imprisoning her. I feel her clawing weakly at me, trying to reach me, desperately trying to fight. But I can’t let her. If she surfaces, if she tries to protect me, they’ll hurt us worse.
I’m sorry, I tell her silently. I’m so sorry.
Her howl echoes through my consciousness, mournful and desperate. Then she retreats, and I’m alone again.
Ryker’s words replay in my mind. “I would have protected you. Loved you.”
He would have. I could have had safety, a real life, a place where I didn’t have to hide. But I could never have given him my heart.
The realization settles over me, quiet and absolute.
Because my heart doesn’t belong to me anymore. It has Darius’s name carved into it.
The admission breaks everything loose inside me. All the walls I’ve built, all the denial I’ve fortified myself with like internal armor—it all dissolves into nothing.
I love him. I’ve loved him longer than I want to admit. And he would have killed me if he’d known what I was.
Tears stream down my face, mixing with the blood. A silent laugh bubbles up from my chest, bitter and sharp, echoing in my head.
He would have killed me if he’d known what I was.
I remember his words so clearly, it’s as if he’s standing in front of me saying them, his eyes cold and distant.
“Some creatures simply should not be allowed to exist.”
He meant it. I saw the conviction in his face when he said it. And it turns out I’m one of them. One of the creatures he has sworn to destroy.
How relieved he’ll be when he finds out I’m dead. The fated mate bond will disappear. He’ll never have to worry about his instincts telling him to protect a hybrid. Never have to choose between his position as alpha heir and the unwanted connection fate forced on him.
Maybe it’s better this way. Anne said he had left on a mission. He’ll probably still be gone when they execute me. He won’t have to see it. Won’t have to watch as they make an example of the girl he never wanted in the first place.
Was any of it real? The way he looked at me? The way he touched me? Or was I just fooling myself the entire time? Because the real Darius, the one who will inherit the alpha position, could never want someone like me.
My chest aches with a pain that has nothing to do with the chains or the cold or the beating I just endured. This pain is deeper. It’s the kind that can never heal because there’s nothing left to heal with.
I love him. And he would kill me without hesitation if he knew the truth.
The irony almost makes me laugh out loud this time. Almost. But I’m too tired even for that.
My wrists ache where the chains have cut into them. Blood has dried in crusty lines down my forearms. Fresh blood trickles down from somewhere on my face. I don’t bother trying to figure out where.
I wanted to save my mother. I did save my mother. Ryker will get her somewhere safe. She’ll survive. That’s all that matters.
The fight drains out of me like water through a sieve. I’ve been running for so long. Running from my mother’s coldness, from the pack’s expectations, from Darius’s lies, from the truth of what I am. I’m so tired of running.
My eyes drift closed despite the guard’s presence in the corner. Exhaustion settles into every part of me until I can barely remember what it once felt like not to be tired.
Life has dealt me a hand with which I can’t win. I’ve tried. I’ve fought and clawed and struggled. But some games you can’t finesse. Some things are just fate.
And my fate is to die in two days, unloved and unmourned by the one person whose opinion matters more than anyone else’s.
Maybe this is what acceptance feels like. Maybe this is peace.
My wolf whimpers weakly in the back of my mind. She’s scared. She doesn’t understand why I’ve stopped fighting. But I don’t have the energy to explain it to her. I don’t have the energy for anything anymore.
The torch in the corridor flickers. The shadows dance across the cell floor, reaching toward me like dark fingers.
I think about Darius one last time. The way he used to look at me, his eyes burning and hungry.
Footsteps in the distance. Angry voices. They’re coming back, probably with worse methods to make me talk.
But I’ve already left this place. Gone somewhere deep inside myself.
I let the darkness take me. Not death. Not yet. Just sleep. Blissful, empty sleep, where I don’t have to think about fated mates or hybrid blood or the boy I love who would never love me back.
My last conscious thought is that at least it will be over soon. No more fighting. No more pretending. No more hoping for something that was never meant to be mine.
Just silence.
Just peace.
Just the end.