Chapter 140: Dying Embers

Della didn’t even realise the beating was over.

She remained hanging from the chains, her head bowed, her wet hair sticking to her face and neck. The room had gone strangely quiet. The only sound was her ragged breathing and the occasional clink of the chains whenever her body trembled.

There was blood everywhere.

It stained the remains of her clothes, streaked down her legs, and ran in thin trails along her skin before dripping onto the stone floor beneath her. Some of it wasn’t even hers anymore, but her mind was too exhausted to distinguish one thing from another.

Every part of her hurt.

Her back burned with a deep, vicious pain that seemed to pulse with every heartbeat and sting with the cold in the air. Her wrists and ankles throbbed from the chains. Her ribs screamed whenever she tried to breathe too deeply, and her head felt so heavy that keeping it upright had become impossible.

She couldn’t feel her fingers properly.

She couldn’t feel her legs at all.

Even the smallest movement sent another wave of agony through her body.

Della tried to swallow, and her throat felt raw. Nothing came out when she attempted to speak because she had screamed until her voice simply disappeared.

A tiny sound escaped her anyway, and her eyes dropped to her stomach. She couldn’t see properly through the tears and strands of hair covering her face, but she could see enough, and her trembling fingers instinctively tried to reach for her abdomen but she couldn’t move them.

The thought alone was sickening, and so frightening. She wanted to cry, but her body seemed to have reached its limit and nothing could come out anymore.

Her eyes remained dry.

Her face remained swollen and bleeding.

Her nose remained broken.

And she could only squeeze her eyes shut. Because she didn’t want to believe it.

She absolutely did not want to believe it.

Her toes curled and squeezed themselves till she could feel her toe bones creaking under the pressure of it. A scream made it somewhere to her throat, but died off since there was no response from her body.

And, there was a very loud ringing in her ears.

It was the denial.

The denial that her baby wasn’t...almost gone.

That there was still a flutter there.

That she hadn’t failed the growing cub inside of her again.

She wasn’t sure how long she kept up with the denial, because it was probably the only thing keeping her from turning into a mad woman — the actual mad woman that the world wanted her to desperately be.

Just then, a door opened and someone walked into the room.

The moment she heard the laughter, she just knew who it was.

"She looks even worse than I imagined!" Selene praised as she stepped around the body dangling from the chains, "Gosh, you look like a nightmare,"

Della only twitched slightly, and then she couldn’t move anymore.

"You can hear me, right?" Selene asked, stepping a little closer and trying to see Della’s eyes through the dirty, tangled hair of hers that had fallen over her face. Once she saw the smallest glint, she nodded, "Good. I thought you couldn’t hear me with the way your heart is beating so slowly,"

Silence.

"Your cub must be barely clinging to life this time. I can’t hear a thing coming from your belly," She sounded almost remorseful, but Della could hear the glamour of gladness in her tone, "Awwwww, I’m so sorry about that. Didn’t mean to harm him,"

She stepped closer and snatched Della’s chin roughly, "But then again, I’m fucking excited that the bastard is almost dead and gone. There was no fucking way I was gonna let a rotblood like you carry the child of my Alpha. Hell! There’s no way I would let any woman bear Malachi a child — not when I’m still alive!"

Della wanted to spit on her face. Luckily for Selene, her throat was too dry to even move.

"And then of course, there’s YOU." She continued, "What are you again? Yes, of course. You’re small. You’re weak. You’re wolfless. And, you’re a rotblood that somehow always... survived. If we are being honest," Selene scoffed, looking astonished herself, "I don’t think there’s a rotblood throughout history that has lived as long as you have. Beatrice only told me you’re about twenty-five years old. Katherine was twenty-three years old when she died,"

The chains shook again.

"She was twenty-three years old when she tried to extract Malachi’s wolf using the forbidden Moonfire ritual to attain power, and I watched as it all went wrong. Everything exploded, and they all went flying. Katherine fell close to where I was, but she wasn’t dead," Selene started walking around Della again, sounding almost...considerate, "When I saw her lying there, bleeding and struggling to crawl away, what else was I supposed to do?" She shrugged, "I mean, the woman was married to the man I loved and adored, and I wanted her out of the way. Hence, when I saw the opportunity, I could only think of one thing. My hands were shaking so hard,"

Selene looked down at her, recalling the feeling.

"So when I saw the stake there...I did not hesitate, and I plunged it straight into her heart and wedged it deep in there. I watched and made sure she was dead before I left, before Malachi could see what I had done. Before he even realised that I was ever there." She laughed again even louder than before, "He’d always believed after that she died in the explosion. That the stake got wedged into her heart because of it. Ouch, really. I felt for him. That is why I stayed with him, and gradually, I gained his trust," Her eyes started to sound vicious, "I gained his trust and he had finally announced our betrothal, and I was the happiest woman on earth...then you came along, and you ruined EVERY SINGLE THING!!!"

Her eyes were also glowing now, and her claws? They had elongated out of her nails.

"Now, Malachi doubts me! He won’t let me close to him at all! He barely finds me attractive anymore and it’s all because of you!"

Another blow hit her stomach, and Della vomited more blood.

"It’s you!!" Another blow, and her claws plunged into her stomach too.

Della’s body vibrated and the chains rattled against her struggle and pain.

"You ruined everything for me!!" She then shoved her claws deeper into Della’s stomach, deeper into her abdomen and digging through layers of flesh...till she found what she was looking for.

"Please, no!!" Della’s bloodshot eyes cried helplessly, "No, please!!!"

Selene grinned, "But unlike you right now, I still have a chance with Malachi. And I will make sure that nothing, and absolutely no one, would ever have a chance at challenging my position next to him again!"