Chapter 556 FALLEN FROM GRACE (BONUS - 3)

CELESTE’S POV

Now was the absolute worst time for despair to paralyze me.

I should have been screaming, fighting; hard-earned, battle-worn instincts should have kicked in, and I should have taught the scumbags a lesson.

But I wasn’t my strong Alpha brother. I wasn’t my champion silver-wolf sister.

I was the bratty, spoiled princess who still tucked my thumb under my fingers when I made a fist, more afraid of chipped nails than broken bones.

When Clancy loosened his grip to pull my jacket and bag off my shoulders, and Reggie’s fingers began working on the top button of my uniform shirt, I couldn’t stop them.

Every time I thought I’d hit rock bottom, the earth crumbled beneath me, and I plunged even deeper.

At first, I blamed the barely-there rain for the wetness on my cheeks, but when Reggie’s crooked yellow smile melted into a watery blur, I realized I was crying.

Fucking pathetic.

Reggie laughed again, raising my hand so my palm cradled against his cheek. “Oh, honey, it’s not fun if you just give in so easily. Come on, give us a bit of a fight, huh?”

“Yeah,” Clancy chimed in, running his hands through my hair. He pressed against me from behind, and a choked sob burst out of me when I felt his hardness against my lower back. “I like a bit of push and pull.”

I blinked back the tears, pulling my gaze away from that awful, wicked glint in Reggie’s eyes. It fell on my wrist instead, and my breath hitched.

It had been months since it disappeared, but for some reason, I remembered the tattoo that had branded my inner wrist. I remembered what I’d sacrificed to lose it.

Olivia. Kharis.

They’d given their lives for me. I hadn’t been worth it, but they’d done it anyway. If they could see me now, they’d definitely regret their decision.

By now, my shirt was unbuttoned all the way, exposing my bra. Goosebumps dotted my skin as Reggie reached out and caressed my stomach.

“Come on.” He licked his lips like a hungry dog. “We can play a game. You be the bad girl, then we can punish you.”

Those words snapped something inside me, and suddenly, from deep inside me, so deep I didn’t even realize it existed, a well of anger surged upward.

I’d done a lot of deplorable things in my life. There was a long list of people who deserved to inflict pain and punishment on me.

But I didn’t do shit to these filthy nobodies.

They were not on that fucking list.

I don’t know what took hold of me—maybe I had some deeply buried instincts dead after all—because with every ounce of fury and indignation, I slammed my foot down on Clancy’s.

“Fuck!” he yelped.

I didn’t give him a second to recover. I snapped my head back, relishing the sharp crack of his nose and the sudden release of his grip as he stumbled away with a pained howl.

In the same split second, I pulled my palm from Reggie’s face and smacked it back with a resounding crack that would have made Sera proud.

His head snapped to the side, his eyes widening in shock.

How’s that for a fight, you bastard?

I didn’t wait around to gloat, though. I knew what I was capable of, and I knew that if I didn’t take this opportunity, I wouldn’t get another.

Abandoning my jacket and bag, I shot down the alley as fast as my untrained, unfit legs would carry me.

Seconds later, I heard enraged shouts behind me, and my heart rate kicked into high gear. They’d been terrifying when they were being ‘friendly’; I didn’t want to find out what they were like when angry.

Adrenaline surged, dulling the burn in my thighs and propelling me forward as I raced down the alley, eyes locked on the turn ahead. If I could just make it, it was a straight sprint to my apartment building.

We had shit security, but maybe the threat of witnesses would scare them off.

My heart stuttered as I rounded the corner—

And crashed straight into a moving wall of muscle.

I reeled backward and would have fallen on my ass if two hands hadn’t shot out and caught my arms.

“Whoa, steady.”

The adrenaline spiked to overwhelming levels. A haze of panic formed over my vision, and nothing mattered more than getting out of this fucking alley and to safety.

I didn’t hesitate. My knee shot up, slamming into the newcomer’s groin.

His hands instantly fell from my arms as he doubled over with a pained, “What the hell?!”

Again, I didn’t wait to assess the damage, and I shot off again.

I barely got anywhere before a hard shove between my shoulder blades sent me sprawling, crashing onto my hands and knees in a puddle.

For a split second, I lay there, panting, heart battering my ribs, lungs clawing for air.

I wasn’t given any time to recover, though. A rough hand grabbed my shoulder and turned me, simultaneously pressing me flat on my back into the muddy puddle.

Filthy water seeped into my hair and clothes, leaving me shivering, dizzy with fear and cold.

A strangled cry escaped me as Clancy straddled my hips, pinning me beneath his weight.

“You fucking bitch,” he hissed, leaning over me to trap my wrists over my head. “You played the bad girl well. Now it’s time to be punished.”

“Get off me!” I struggled, my legs flailing. But then two hands gripped my ankles and held them in place, and I knew Reggie had joined the conversation.

“Hold still,” he hissed, his honey tone replaced with acid, “or I’ll break your fucking ankles.”

Panic tightened its grip on me and moisture gathered in my eyes again. I clamped them shut, refusing to let any more tears fall.

‘Fitting,’ I thought bitterly.

Maybe I had dormant psionic powers of my own, and I’d manifested them when I wrote in my note to Sera that I would probably end up dead in an alley somewhere.

Clancy leaned forward, and a scream tore out of me as his teeth clamped hard on the skin between my shoulder and neck.

“This,” he murmured against my skin, “is going to be—”

The weight vanished so suddenly I froze, blinking up at the swirling ceiling of dark clouds.

Slowly, sounds filtered into my ears—grunts, thuds, cracks, a familiar pained howl.

I pushed myself up, mud squelching between my fingers, jaw dropping as the scene unfolded before me.

The man I’d kneed in the balls was now kicking the ever-loving shit out of Reggie and Clancy.

Stunned, I watched him drive an elbow into Clancy’s gut, then in one fluid motion, sweep Reggie’s legs out from under him.

The two men put up an admirable fight, but it was clear right away they were hopelessly outmatched.

He was at least a head taller than Reggie and twice as broad as Clancy, but he moved with the grace of a dancer, not giving either of them the chance to recover from one hit before they received another.

I’d watched some of the strongest, most skilled werewolves fight. Despite their finesse, the primal brutality and rawness of their animal counterpart always simmered just beneath the surface.

But this—this was pure grace, indisputable elegance. Smooth like fucking butter.

When it was over, I almost clapped.

Reggie and Clancy were left in groaning heaps, clutching what I hoped were broken limbs, while the stranger stood over them, barely winded.

He leaned down and grabbed Reggie’s face and said in a low, menacing tone, “If I ever so much as catch you looking the wrong way at a woman again, I’ll carve your dick off and shove it down your throat. Both of you. Got it?”

Reggie’s answer was another groan.

The man released him with a shove and straightened. “Now get the fuck out of here.”

He watched them drag themselves out of the alley, groaning and cursing. Satisfaction threaded through my fear and adrenaline, and I let out a shaky breath of relief.

But my relief froze as the man turned his attention to me.

“As for you,” he said, walking toward me, “your knees should be registered as lethal weapons.”