When I found myself in Levian pack last night with Finn standing before , I never imagined it would end like this.
I stared at the corpse. Finn was dead. I had killed him. I had avenged my mother just as I had promised her and myself.
The whole pack stood frozen, but nobody ca near . Fear was written on their faces. I spotted the council mbers among the crowd, the sa people who had shunned my family and treated us worst of all. Their horror-stricken expressions were a sight to behold.
"She killed the Alpha! Seize the criminal!" soone shouted after a mont of silence.
It was Esther’s father, the chief Beta. Beside him stood Esther, pale and wide-eyed. She looked as if she might vomit.
Then she turned to , tears of fury in her eyes as if she were ready to kill with her own hands. But she didn’t move an inch to get to .
"What are you waiting for? Get her!"
The warriors closed ranks, but none seed eager to approach. After what they had seen I could do, their hesitation was understandable. If I were in their place, I would have hesitated too.
Shadows peeled away at my side, and in the blink of an eye, Rion’s great black wolf materialised a few feet away.
"What do you want to do? Shall we kill them all?" he asked in a bright voice which told he wouldn’t mind doing that. He’d even be entertained.
"Can you teleport us back to Undercity, even from here?" I asked.
Honestly, killing Finn had been everything. The council mbers had wronged as well, but the sight of their faces, horror-struck and helpless, was reward enough. The idea of them dreaming of this day, or of coming for them in the dark while wondering when their turn would be, felt satisfying.
There was, however, soone else I needed to settle with.
I told Rion what I wanted to do through our mind link, and he was only too happy to oblige.
***
Now, in my human form, I stood in the Levian pack’s dungeon, the very cell where I had been held and where Stella had been tortured and killed.
The dungeon was sealed. With Rion’s power, no one could enter unless he allowed it.
Before , Esther knelt, her arms chained and hanging. Her once-beautiful clothes were streaked with dirt, and her carefully styled hair lay in disarray. Gone was the arrogant look she always wore. I could not have been happier to strip her of that.
"I don’t know what witchcraft you’ve wrapped yourself in," she said, "but I am sure you are not the Celestial Wolf. You only mimic her with whatever dark magic you use. Do you think you can scare ? You fucking bitch. You deserve to rot in hell for what you did to Finn!"
"If you think my power cos from witchcraft, I don’t care," I said, calm and sharp. "It doesn’t change the fact that your life is at the tips of my fingers now. You have no power, and the Alpha you worshipped is dead. You are alone here, Esther. No one is coming to help you."
She trembled with anger. I smiled because I could see that beneath her fury was raw fear.
This was the first ti I’d seen Esther like this, and it was deliciously entertaining.
"You think I’d just forget everything you did to ?" I shook my head. "I might have spared you if you hadn’t had Stella killed. She was innocent, and you did it for your amusent. How could you stomach sothing like that?"
Esther laughed, high and unhinged.
"Fine! Kill then! Kill so I can see Finn again. I don’t want a world where he doesn’t exist."
She sounded detached from reality. I almost pitied her.
"Yeah," I said, smirking. "I’m sure you’ll et him in hell. But not yet. Death is too easy for you. How about a little ga first?"
I walked to the rack of weapons along the wall. Chains, hooks, a set of cruel tools the Levian pack used for punishnt. The leather slled faintly of oil and old blood. Her eyes widened as I scanned the tools, anger and dread flickering across her face.
I picked up a whip, testing its weight. The leather hissed as it flexed.
"You can’t shift with those chains on," I told her, studying the way her shoulders hunched. "So stop trying."
She spat. "I don’t care about your gas. Just kill now and be done with it!"
I crouched in front of her. I tilted her chin with one finger, then grabbed a fistful of hair until she yelped. The tal at her wrists rattled a panicked rhythm.
"Body or face? Which one should I hit first?" I murmured, letting the question hang. "I wonder what Finn would prefer. His beloved whore unscarred, or marked? Will he recognize you in the afterlife even with the ugly scars?"
I enjoyed watching the color drain from her cheeks.
"Kill !" she scread, straining at the chains.
The noise reverberated through the dungeon. Rion wasn’t in the cell, but he was sowhere in the dungeon, in the shadows. He’d told earlier that he’d stand guard and let take my ti.
"I will kill you," I said, tightening my grip on the whip. "But not too fast. I will make you pay. I will savor it."
"I knew it. I knew you are always crazy. You were just hiding it before, but now you’re exposing your true self. How ugly and disgusting you are inside!"
"Ugly?" I cocked my head. "Have you ever looked in a mirror and thought about your sins, Esther? I doubt you have."
I lashed the whip across her cheek. Her scream cut sharp.
"When I finish giving you scars and making your face my artwork," I said through gritted teeth, "I’ll hold a mirror up to you. I’ll let you see the real face of ugly and disgusting."
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