Lorelei POV
The force of my punch knocked her off balance, sending her crashing backward onto the floor. Before she could recover, I was on top of her, fisting my hand in her hair and hitting her face over and over again.
"Get off , you bitch!" Chelsea snarled, trying to shove away, but I was surprisingly stronger than her.
All the anger and frustration I’d been carrying for weeks, for years, ca pouring out.
Every mont of being tornted.
Every ti I had been pushed around.
Every ti I had been blad for sothing that wasn’t my fault.
Every ti I had been discarded like I ant nothing.
It all poured into each punch.
"No, you’re the bitch!" I growled viciously. "I’m going to kill you! I will fucking kill you! And when we both get to hell, I’ll kill you again!"
My fist connected with her nose, and blood sprayed across her face and over my knuckles.
Chelsea scread like a dying animal, her hands flailing wildly as she tried to shield her face from the relentless rain of blows, but I didn’t stop.
I couldn’t.
The tallic scent of blood filled the cramped space, and sothing deep inside responded to it.
So feral, defensive instinct I hadn’t even known existed.
All I could see was Callista’s face.
All I could feel was every ti I had been told I was worthless.
"What’s going on here?"
Several voices rang out at once, followed by the sound of heavy footsteps.
Then hands grabbed from behind and ripped away from Chelsea.
"Let go!" I thrashed wildly, trying to break free, but the grips holding were too strong.
Two guards restrained , their arms like iron bands around my shoulders.
My chest heaved violently, and my breathing ca in ragged gasps as I finally stopped struggling.
Through the haze of my rage, I could see Chelsea clearly now.
And the damage I had done.
Her nose looked broken, twisted at an unnatural angle as blood poured down her face in thick streams. Her lip was split in multiple places, and her left eye was already swollen nearly shut.
Several maids rushed to her side and helped her sit up while throwing strange looks in my direction and whispering among themselves.
"She’s crazy!" Chelsea scread, pointing at with a trembling, blood-covered finger. "She tried to kill ! She’s insane! She just snapped and attacked ! All because I bumped into her! She should be punished! She should be..."
"Enough!"
One of the guards barked, and the entire room instantly fell silent.
The guard who had spoken was a tall, broad-shouldered man with cold brown eyes. He turned to face while two other guards continued holding my arms pinned behind my back.
"You," he said. "You’re coming with us."
"I didn’t. She started it..." I tried to defend myself, but the guard cut off with a harsh look.
"This has nothing to do with that." He gestured toward Chelsea’s bloodied face, and his expression twisted briefly in disgust before he looked back at . "We have been instructed to fetch you."
Instructed.
The word echoed in my ears.
By who?
The answer ca before I could even finish the thought.
The Alpha King.
It had to be him.
The reality of the situation crashed over like a bucket of ice water.
My knees nearly gave out beneath , and I would have collapsed if the guards hadn’t been holding upright.
Across the room, Chelsea’s lips slowly curled into a bloody smirk.
She knew.
She knew exactly what this was about.
"You’re dead, stray," Chelsea whispered, just loud enough for to hear.
***
"No, this is a mistake," I muttered desperately as the guards dragged farther and farther away from the storage room.
The corridors I had grown familiar with slowly disappeared behind us, replaced by darker, quieter hallways.
Creepier hallways.
The lights along the walls were spaced farther apart here, casting long shadows that danced across the floor and seed to reach for every ti we passed.
The air felt colder.
The only sounds were my ragged breathing and the steady thud of the guards’ boots against the stone floor.
This had to be where they executed people.
I was sure of it.
"You have to believe ," I pleaded, my voice cracking. "Please believe . I’m the victim here. She set up. I didn’t..."
"Shut up!" one of the guards snarled, cutting off. "Even if what you’re saying is true, that’s not for us to decide. We’re simply following orders. Don’t make this more difficult than it needs to be."
That forced to clamp my lips shut.
My heart pounded so hard I could feel it in my throat, each beat making it harder to breathe as I stared down the endless dark corridor ahead and wondered if I was being marched toward my execution.
They led deeper into the estate, past corridors I had never seen before, until we stopped in front of a door unlike any other.
It was massive, made of reinforced black steel, with bolts the size of my fist lining the edges. There wasn’t even a handle on this side.
The guards exchanged a look before one of them produced a thick key and inserted it into a lock hidden in the wall.
The door didn’t open imdiately. Instead, a series of clicks echoed from within, sounding like gears turning and locks releasing one after another while the guards stood there waiting with tense expressions.
Thirty seconds passed, then a minute, then two.
Each second felt like an eternity, making the tightness in my chest grow worse.
"What is this place?" I whispered, but no one answered.
The clicking finally stopped, and the door groaned as it began to swing open slowly and heavily, as though it were fighting against itself.
"Shove her in quickly before it senses us," one of the guards said.
My stomach dropped.
Before I could ask what "it" was, the two guards behind grabbed my arms and dragged toward the dark opening.
"Wait, what? No..."
I tried to protest one last ti, but they shoved inside anyway, and the door imdiately slamd shut behind .
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