Ronan’s POV

+8 Pearls

She knelt in front of me, blood smeared across her face, hair matted to her skin, hands trembling as she mmed her forehead against the floor.

Over and over.

Bang bBang /bBang

Each sound echoed like a hammer in my skull.

ck

I should’ve felt satisfaction. This was what she deserved–the girl who lured my sister into ithe /iForest, bwho /bleft Tessa

half–dead andatose in a hospital bed. This was justice.

But watching her grovel, filthy and broken, didn’t feel like justice. It just felt… wrong.

Annoying.

Pathetic

Disgusting

My temples throbbed. My fingers itched bto /bcrush something.

“Get bout/bb,/b” bI /bsnapped.

She didn’t move.

“Are you deal?” My voice rose. “I said get out!”

Still nothing. Her head just kept hitting the floor, leaving a smear of red that stained the marble like a curse. It was like she couldn’t even hear me–like she wasn’t beven /bhere.

I stepped forwardb, /bgrabbed her arm, ready to drag her out like the disgrace she was. But the second my hand moved, she flinched. Hard.

She recoiled like she’d been electrocuted, curling into herself, arms thrown over her head.

“Please don’t hit me!” she cried. “I’m sorry, don’t hit me!”

I froze.

For a split bsecond/bb, /bmy breath caught. Her voice–raw, terrified, broken–ripped through the room like a de.

What the hell had they done to her?

bNo. /bNob, /bbI /bbwasn’t /bgoing there. I wasn’t softening.

She wasn’t the victim,

Tewa bwas /b

Tessa–the bright, fearless, brilliant sister I raised. The one who followed Riley’s message into the woods. The one we bfound /bbarely breathing. Ripped bapart/b.

matter if bwe /bshared ba /bPack

bAnd /bRileyb? /bShe was the one with Rogue bblood/b. Raised by criminals. Born in shadows. It didn’t n game. That girl was a stain.

That voice. That flinch. That relles.

She wasn’t faking it. bYou /bcan’t fake that kind of bfear/b.

535 PM

+B Pearls

For the first time, I hesitated.

bAnd /blike a damn fool, my mind betrayed me–shing back to years ago, when I first heard her name. Riley Vale, the prodigy from Mooncrest bAcademy/b. The girl who beat me in every single physicspetition, year after byear/bb. /bThe one who walked onto the national stage bwith /bdirt bon /bher shoes and brilliance in her eyes.

She never smiled much, but when she did, it lit up the whole damn auditorium.

I hated her back then too.

Not because she was a Rogue. Not because she was dangerous.

Because 1 couldn’t catch up to her.

Because she didn’t care about the spotlight, and somehow, bthat /bmade her shine even brighter.

And then the bEbonw /bPack brought her home.

The real daughter of the Vale family. The one with Alpha blood.

And just when I thought maybe–maybe she could be something more than a rival, more than a threat…

Tessa ended up in aa.

And Riley was to me.

So why the hell was my hand still frozen midair?

Why was bI /bhesitating?

Her body was curled tight, shoulders trembling. She wasn’t looking at me anymore. She bwasn’t /beven present.

She was back in prison. Or wherever the hell they sent her. Reliving something I’d never seen. ey sent her. Reliving something I’d never seen.

I lowered my arm slowly, the weight of it suddenly unbearable.

“You can go,” I said, quieter this time.

My voice sounded foreign to my own cars.

She didn’t move.

Part of me wanted to grab her again. To throw her out. To scream until she remembered who she hurt.

But banother /bpart–one I didn’t want to name–just stood there, watching the girl who used to be a legend, now reduced to a ghost

I clenched bmy /bjaw, Turned baway/b.

“Leave,” I said again, this time with steel in my voice.

She wasn’t hearing a damn thing I said.

I could see it in her face–nk, distant, bsmeared /bwith bblood /band tears. Her eyes were bssy/b, wide with panic, scanning for something, anything to hold on to..

Then she lifted a trembling hand and roughly wiped her bface/b, smearing crimson across her cheek. Her gaze snapped to my bmouth /b

And then–rity.

She read my hips. Understood.

“Leave.”

Her body flinched. For a second, she looked like she couldn’t believe it.

b115 /bbPM /b

b? /b

Was that hope flickering in her eyes?

+8 Pearls

The girl who had crawled in here like ba /bshattered thing–now staring at me like she’d been bhanded /ba second chance at life. As if my bdismissal /bwas mercy, not disgust.

Her lips trembled. “I’ll go. Right now,” she choked out, voice raw, hoarse–more breath than sound.

She scrambled up from the floor, using both hands and knees. Her injured leg buckled, nearly giving out beneath her. Twice she stumbled, nearly fell t again.

But she forced herself upright.

Didn’t beven /blook back.

She bolted.

Like a hunted banimal /bfinally released from the cage.

And I let her.

I didn’t move. Didn’t call her back. Just stood there, jaw btight/b, fists clenched, watching her figure disappe until there was nothing left but silence.

I didn’t know how long I stood there before I turned and sat beside the bed.

into the hallway.

The air in the room had grown heavy again, thick with the sterile scent of medicine and something deeper–grief.

I reached out, fingers brushing bover /bthe outline of my sister’s face.

Tessa’s cheeks had grown hollow.

Her once bright eyes remained closed,shes unmoving, bsunk /binto bruised shadows.

So still.

Too still.

“I let her go, Tessa,” I murmured, my thumb tracing the curve of her pale brow. “Just like that. After everything she bdid /bto you. I let her walk.”

I swallowed, throat dry.

“Would byou /bhate me for it?”

But there bwas /bno answerb. /b

There never was

Only the quiet hiss of the venttor. The steady beep of the machines. The crushing weight in my chest.

I’d told myself for months bthat /bI hated Riley.

bThat /bI wanted her to pay.

But when I looked her in the eyes just now–saw how broken she was, how terrified, how ruined–I didn’t see a bpredator/b, I saw a ruin

And still. I couldn’t figure out whether that made things better or worse.

I leaned forward and pressed my forehead against the edge of the mattress. “I should’ve finished her,” I whispered.

b3:35 /bPM