Chapter 83: The Awakening — little one

Della simply stared as Beatrice’s face reddened, her brown eyes curling and catching from pain. She kept pounding on Della’s hands, legs kicking hard, but Della felt nothing.

She only saw someone whom she had grown up with.

Laughed with.

Played with.

Learned with.

Eaten with.

Shared everything with.

Assured her that she wasn’t alone.

Then, that same person had stood there, watching her with eyes she had gotten from the devil, as she was accused of something she didn’t do. She had always wanted her dead, in the worst possible way.

And this ceremony had probably been IT for her.

Beatrice had been smiling all through. She didn’t need to see it to feel it.

Betrayed by the one person...you would burn the whole world for.

"You were once everything to me," Della said, her voice raw with fury and betrayal, "My anchor to life. The reason I kept living another day. The reason I didn’t run away from IronRidge," She paused again, and her voice became heavier, "God, I loved you so, so much Beatrice," It broke.

Only a moment.

Then it surged again, "After that night you accused me, I always asked myself what I’d done to deserve that hatred. Did I ever offend you while we were young? Or did you always hate everything about me... especially the little scraps of kindness father gave me simply because I looked like my mother?"

Beatrice kept clawing, her face swelling.

She couldn’t breathe, and her flaring legs were beginning to lose their strength.

"You always hated it that much, didn’t you?!" Della asked, "My existence must have tortured you every single day...," A tear slipped down her face, but it sizzled from the heat from her skin and turned into steam immediately, disappearing, "You should have just told me, and I would have gladly killed myself back then, sparing you for all this hardwork you’ve been putting into getting rid of me,"

And speaking of hard work...

Della’s eyes snapped to the woman cloaked in expensive leather, sitting at the very front.

The moment Selene felt those gray, hellish eyes on her, she caved in so hard that her knees gave out and almost hit the ground.

Almost.

She didn’t even know when Della crossed the room, because one moment she was shaking like a leaf, and the next...she was dangling right next to Beatrice, a chokehold so bad she started to see stars almost immediately gripped her head.

She wanted to scream, but no sound came out.

"Selene Vale," Della cooed, her voice food and empty, "No one has been putting in as much effort as you in trying to get rid of me and gaining favours from those around you,"

Selene’s eyes watered, her wolf choking too.

"Today, you’d poison the Alpha’s mind. Tomorrow, you’d work with Beatrice in tampering with the banner so you can put the whole Pack in jeopardy and then blame it on me. Another day, you’re sending an assassin to shut the Head seamstress up so she wouldn’t dare utter your name. Another...you’re thinking of how to get your pussy fucked by either Malachi, the male whores...or your own brother,"

That part would have earned a collective gasp from the crowd, but no one dared to speak still.

Della laughed, "So desperate to get rid of me that you brought up the forgotten law to the elders, placing the kingdom once again in a tight spot," Della nodded approvingly, "You really worked so hard, Selene. Anything...to become the Luna of the Eclipse Crown pack. I mean, you’ve already killed those in your path before... especially...,"

Selene’s eyes began to plead, her big eyes boring into Della’s eyes.

Della’s smirk only grew bigger, "What? I shouldn’t call that particular name? I shouldn’t tell him that you were there the night it all went down and delivered the finishing blow?"

She continued to plead, tears running down her eyes.

Everyone kept watching. Wondering what Della was talking about this time.

Meanwhile, Beatrice was beginning to go limp in the other hand. Her strength was failing her. So was her consciousness.

Leopold wasn’t awake yet to try and do something stupid again.

And Della...was only getting started tonight.

In a flash, she had torn off the clothes they were wearing — the rather expensive ones, probably the most expensive they owned in their collection and used them to drape across her own naked body, leaving both of them...now naked and clawing.

"P... please," Selene cracked out, "P... please,"

Della smirked, "Oh, you’ll be saying more than that once I’m done with you,"

Then, in that moment, something fluttered. Tiny. Soft.

And almost imperceptible even to her.

She ignored it at first, her whole inner voice screaming at her to go on with the torture. To keep channelling this fury and burn all of her enemies alive. Slowly, make them feel a thousand times more than they ever inflicted upon her skin.

Upon her heart and soul.

But then, the feeling came again, and this time, her brows drew together. She felt the movement, and it took her another second to realise that...it was coming from deep inside her.

Low within her abdomen. Small. Fragile. And Alive.

Everything stopped, and her wolf fell silent.

The shock made the storm around her falter, and she didn’t even realise she had let go of the two women, who crumbled on the floor and quickly started crawling away from her.

The movement happened again, so faint she almost believed she’d imagined it, and her hand drifted instinctively to her stomach.

No...

Her breathing caught.

No...

Was she...

Instinctively, her eyes lifted to Malachi again.

He frowned ever so slightly, confusion replacing the awe on his face as he watched her hand rest over her abdomen. Then, he took one step toward her. One, small step — not understanding why he even did that.

The silver glow beneath her skin flickered even faster now, like stars disappearing behind storm clouds. The pressure suffocating the cave lifted little by little, and Alphas sucked desperate breaths into their lungs.

The moonlight returned to nothing more than moonlight, and the shaking mountain finally quietened.

The wolf spoke again, but this time her voice was quieter.

*Little one...*

Della froze.

Little...

One?

A cold horror unlike anything she’d ever experienced swept through her.

Not horror for herself.

For the life inside her.

If she stayed now that the fury and power had calmed...

If any of these men remembered why they had gathered and continued...

They wouldn’t just be killing her, but also kill this beautiful, small cub that was still breathing inside of her.

Before anyone could move, Della’s feet hit the earth, and she ran. Not with the impossible grace she’d displayed moments earlier. She was running normally.

She threw herself against the large doors of the cavern entrance and slipped through the small opening her strength that managed to make.

No one followed at first. They probably didn’t even remember how to move their feet.

Hundreds of Alphas merely stared after the woman who had arrived as a condemned slave...

...and fled as something none of them could name.

No one noticed that Malachi had already moved.

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