Lyra
I was still hanging helplessly from the door hinge, my wrists tied tight above my head and my forehead pressed against the stained wood, when the heavy latch jerked violently from the hallway outside.
Before my brain could register the sound, the heavy oak door was kicked inward, yanking my bound arms forward and then slamming my entire weight backward into the stone wall behind me with a sickening thud.
A blood-curdling scream tore out of my throat.
“Arrrrrrrrghhhh!”
Pain erupted across my back like a thousand white-hot needles, tearing open the fresh wounds Fredrick had just carved into my skin.
It felt as if the leather belt was slicing through my flesh all over again, stretching raw muscle and sending blinding shockwaves down my spine.
My legs buckled completely, but the binding around my wrists caught my weight, leaving me suspended in sheer, unadulterated agony.
For a few terrifying seconds, my vision went pure white.
Nothing existed in the universe except the searing, rhythmic throb radiating from my shoulders down to my waist.
I couldn’t expand my lungs, couldn’t draw air, couldn’t think past the agonizing pulse tearing through my body in endless waves.
Only when the peak of the agony subsided, leaving a sharp ringing in my ears, did I manage to drag my eyelids open.
And there she stood.
Selene.
She was framed in the threshold, frozen for a single beat, her face contorted into something wild, cruel, and completely insane.
Her eyes burned into mine—wide, bloodshot, and so saturated with absolute hatred that I instinctively tried to pull back into the stone wall, even though I had nowhere to go.
She stepped into the room, her high heels striking the flagstones with sharp, echoing cracks, as if every step were intended to crush my spirit beneath her feet.
“You absolute parasite!” she shrieked, her voice trembling violently with fury.
“What lies did you whisper to the Grand Luna and Grand Alpha?!”
Her whole frame shook as she advanced toward me, her fists clenched so tight her knuckles were white, her chest heaving in shallow, rapid hitches.
She looked entirely unhinged—like a beast prepared to tear my throat out with her bare teeth.
I parted my lips, but not a single sound came out.
I was too weak, my voice scraped away by tears, my breathing shallow and ragged.
The agony in my back had stolen my strength, and a heavy, suffocating exhaustion pulled at my limbs.
I couldn’t even keep my chin up, let alone defend myself.
Selene closed the distance until her face was inches from mine, her hot, sour breath hitting my skin.
“They said it was you!” she screamed, jabbing a rigid finger directly into the center of my forehead.
“They claimed you were the one who guided them to our quarters yesterday afternoon!”
Her voice cracked on the final word, a desperate, hysterical roar, and she slammed her open palm against the wood beside my ear.
The heavy impact rattled the frame and yanked my bound wrists painfully against the hinge.
I winced in silence, unable to do anything else.
Her rage multiplied instantly.
“Answer me!” she demanded, spittle flying from her lips as her shoulders quivered.
“What did you say to them?!
What disgusting story did you spin so they would choose a servant over me?!”
I forced my eyes to stay open, swallowing down the bitter taste of blood and salt.
I parted my lips, forcing the words out through a hoarse, trembling whisper.
“Nothing…
Selene,” I rasped out, my voice cracking beneath the weight of my exhaustion.
“I swear…
I said nothing to them.”
Her features twisted in sheer disbelief, rapidly souring into deep revulsion.
For a second, she looked as though she wanted to reach into my throat and tear the truth out of me.
“Oh, really?” Her tone dropped into a terrifying, toxic drop, each word sharp enough to draw blood.
She took one slow, deliberate step forward, her heels clicking against the floor in a steady, ominous march.
Before I could draw another breath, her right hand whipped across the air.
CRACK!
A stinging blow struck my jaw, snapping my head hard to the left.
My unpinned hair fell forward in a dark sheet, momentarily veiling my face from her view.
Heat flooded my cheek, a angry, throbbing burn.
I tasted metallic blood where the inside of my lip had been crushed against my teeth.
“You think I’m stupid enough to believe your pathetic lies?” she spat, her tone tightening with manic intensity.
Her fingers shot forward again—not to strike, but to clamp down.
She dug her sharp nails into my bruised cheekbone, forcing my head upward until my neck stretched to its limit.
Her grip pinched my flesh, pinning my face in place like a hunter holding down prey.
“Now listen to me very carefully,” she hissed, her eyes darting frantically, her breath ragged.
“The Alpha Triplets belong to me.
They have always been mine.
And I promise you…” She leaned in until her lips brushed the shell of my ear, “…even if they force a ring onto your finger tomorrow, you will never, ever own them.”
She let out a sharp, hysterical laugh that bounced off the bare stone walls—a cold, jagged sound that sent a chill straight down my spine.
My stomach churned.
The room felt suffocatingly small, as if her madness were consuming every breath of available air in the suite.
Then, with a cruel smirk twisting her lips, she reached into the folds of her silk gown.
In my dazed state, I didn’t process the movement immediately.
Until the torchlight caught the metal.
A blade.
Small, silver, wickedly sharp—glimmering like a sliver of frost beneath the lamps.
The air locked in my throat.
Panic flooded my veins like cold poison.
She raised the steel, her eyes narrowing into slits, and in a fraction of a second she lunged—aiming the point directly for my face.
Instinct took over; I jerked my head violently to the right, but I was tied too short to fully escape.
The razor edge bit deep into my cheek.
A line of liquid fire tore across my skin.
A choked, ragged sound broke from my throat as hot blood welled from the cut, running down my jaw and dripping onto my collarbone.
The pain flared white-hot, my vision blurring with tears borne of raw horror.
“Selene…
please,” I sobbed, my voice shattering into pieces.
Tears spilled freely down my face, running straight into the fresh cut and stinging like acid.
“I don’t want them…
I don’t care about the Alphas…”
The desperate words hung in the space between us, fragile and trembling.
Only then did the frenzy in her eyes flicker.
She froze mid-motion.
Her hand lowered an inch—not dropping the weapon entirely, but hesitating as the threat shifted.
Her eyes widened, not with hatred, but with a sudden, sharp confusion as sanity tried to reclaim her features.
I swallowed hard, forcing myself to push past the suffocating tightness in my throat.
“I need you…
to help me,” I whispered, searching her face for any remnant of human warmth, mercy, or greed.
“Help me leave this territory tonight.”
The plea slipped into the air like a final, desperate prayer.
“And you can keep them,” I added, my breath shuddering out of me.
“Every single one of them.
The triplets…
the crown…
the title…
it’s all yours.”
A heavy, absolute silence settled over the room.
The silver blade hovered between us in the dim light.
Selene’s expression shifted rapidly—shock, suspicion, calculating hunger, and dark victory warring across her face.
Neither of us dared to breathe.
The only sound left in the room was the frantic, terrifying thud of my own beating heart.