(Audrey’s POV)
It turned out that Arthur Moonstone thought the same as the Shadowcrest pack. I was just a burden to him. He must have complained a long time ago. Otherwise, such harsh words wouldn’t have slipped out so easily. A bitter smile appeared on my lips. I shouldn’t have hoped that he would save me.
The silver rope continued to burn against my skin as I hung there, abandoned by the wolf who had promised to win me back just hours earlier.
“Well done, Alpha Moonstone!” Marcus Blackclaw clapped his hands together, his face alight with cruel amusement. “I must say, I’m impressed by your decisiveness. Choosing the Shadowcrest she-wolf over your marked Luna-that’s going to make quite the story in pack circles.”
Emma nestled deeper into Arthur’s arms, her face buried against his chest. “Arthur, it hurts so much,” she whimpered, though I could see no visible wounds on her. “Can we leave now? I don’t want to be here anymore.”
Arthur didn’t even look in my direction. It was as if I had ceased to exist for him. His attention was focused entirely on Emma, his hand gently stroking her hair as he murmured something into her ear.
“What about the Luna?” one of Marcus’s Beta wolves asked, gesturing toward me with a mixture of confusion and discomfort on his face.
Marcus waved his hand dismissively. “That’s not our concern anymore. Alpha Moonstone has made his choice clear.”
The rope tightened further as my body weight pulled against it. Each breath was a struggle. The silver burning into my flesh weakened my wolf to the point where she could barely respond within me. Yet the physical pain was nothing compared to the hollow ache spreading through my chest.
“It’s up to you!” Arthur’s footsteps didn’t stop, and he threw out two words calmly. It seemed that what would happen to me had nothing to do with him. His heart and eyes were only on Emma’s injury.
His tall and straight back quickly disappeared before my eyes. The sound of tires against gravel came from outside, and within a few seconds, it was completely quiet.
I narrowed my eyes and looked at the single light bulb above that was swaying in the wind, and suddenly laughed, “Didn’t you want to kill me? Do it.”
Arthur’s betrayal had already killed me once. I wasn’t afraid anymore.
Marcus approached me slowly, his expensive shoes clicking on the concrete floor. He studied me with curious eyes, as if trying to understand why I wasn’t begging for my life.
“You have spirit, Luna Winter,” he said, pulling out a cigar and lighting it. “Most she-wolves would be howling in terror by now.”
“What’s the point?” I replied, my voice raspy from the rope’s pressure. “Just get it over with.”
He took a long drag from his cigar, the smoke curling around his head like a sinister halo. “Interesting. You really don’t think your mate will come back for you, do you?”
“He’s not my mate,” I spat out. “Not in any way that matters.”
Marcus put out the remaining half of his cigar on the ground and looked at me with a flushed face, “Luna Winter, that idiot from the Shadowcrest pack is stupid, but I’m not. I don’t dare to touch you for now. Today, I can let you go, but in the future, if there is anything I can use you for, I hope you can put in a good word for me.”
His words confused me. What was he talking about? Why would he need a good word from me, a she-wolf who had just been publicly abandoned by her Alpha?
“What use could I possibly be?” I asked, my voice strained as I struggled against the burning ropes. “You saw what just happened. Arthur left me here to die. The Shadowcrest family wants me gone. I have no power to help anyone.”
Marcus chuckled, a knowing glint in his eyes. “Fortune’s wheel turns quickly in pack circles, Luna Winter. Today’s abandoned mate might be tomorrow’s valuable ally.”
With a nod to his Beta, he ordered my release. The ropes loosened, and I collapsed to the ground, gasping as air flooded back into my lungs. My skin was raw and blistered where the silver-laced rope had touched it.
“Take her outside,” Marcus instructed. “Give her back her car keys.”
The Beta helped me up, surprisingly gentle now that I was no longer considered a threat. My legs trembled beneath me, barely strong enough to support my weight.
Outside, the fresh air filled my lungs, clearing some of the silver’s effects from my system. My wolf stirred weakly within me, responding to the open sky and the scent of the forest.
“Are you serious about letting me go?” I asked Marcus, who had followed us out. My voice was tentative, expecting some kind of trap.
“I am,” he confirmed with a slight bow. “I only ask one thing in return.”
I tensed, waiting for the catch.
“When the Shadowcrest family asks-and they will ask-don’t tell them I let you go so easily,” he said, adjusting the cuffs of his expensive shirt. “Let them think you suffered appropriately at my hands.”
Before I could respond, a commotion erupted near the entrance to the abandoned territory. A Beta wolf came running toward us, his face pale with fear.
“Boss Reed, the one from the Stormhowl pack is here,” he announced in a panic.
Did Florian Stormhowl come? My heart skipped a beat at the possibility of rescue.
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