Crimson blood gushed forth, sttering across the warped wooden floor, the metallic scent filling the room like a storm that could drown the senses. Caden’s body convulsed violently, his eyes bulging wide, pupils blown out in pure terror. Fear coated them, thick and ck as tar, drowning out thest of his defiance.

    “No… please,” he gasped, voice trembling, his hands slick with his own blood as he tried to hold himself together. “Spare me–I’ll do anything, anything you ask!”

    Carmen stood above him, her gaze colder than a moonless night, sharper than any de in her hand. Her expression carried no mercy, no hint of hesitation–only the hollow fury of a wolf who had lost her pack-

    sister.

    The image of Riley’s pale body lying on that cold, merciless operating table surged back into her mind, burning like a brand across her heart. Her voice was low, guttural, vibrating with the echo of her wolf.

    “You beg me to spare you… Tell me, who spared Riley?”

    Her grip on the de tightened, her knuckles turning white.

    “My Riley,” she whispered, her voice breaking into a snarl, “born under the moon of Ebonw blood, destined to be a daughter of a noble pack, to live with dignity, draped in silks, shielded by power. And yet —because of the two of you-” she spat the words like venom, eyes narrowing on Caden and Dean Elira ckthorn “-her life was stripped away, her blood spilled, her destiny broken.”

    The knife descended again, piercing flesh.

    “AHHHH!” Caden’s scream tore through the silence, raw and ragged, echoing off the walls. His body arched, trembling violently, his voice cracking as pain ripped through him like ws through fur.

    Carmen’s face remained unreadable, eyes burning with a cold fire as she cut him again, each strike slow, deliberate, a judgment that would not end quickly.

    “Riley was the gentlest soul in this cursed world,” Carmen hissed, the words vibrating with the growl of her wolf. “And she is gone. Tell me–why should filth like you breathe when she no longer can? You do not deserve this life. You deserve the pit.”

    Her strikes grew crueler, each one carving through sinew and bone. The room grew thick with the reek of blood, iron, and bile until even the air was choking.

    For three relentless hours, Caden remained alive, awake, forced to witness his own body split apart under Carmen’s hand. Piece by piece, she cut him down until he was barely human, his howls echoing until they fractured into whimpers, then silence.

    Dean Elira ckthorn was forced to watch every moment. She was frozen at first, her body rigid, her eyes wide and ssy, like prey locked in the stare of a predator. Too much fear froze her in ce, leaving her bas /blifeless as a doll carved of wood.

    When atst Cadeny broken, his corpse little more than a ruin on the floor, Carmen turned her eyes toward Elira.

    “You’re next.”

    bChapter /bb308 /b

    Those two bwords /bstruck Elira like lightning splitting a tree. She snapped out of her frozen bstupen/b, gaping, shaking her head violently.

    No–bno/b, please!” she sobbeil, tears spilling down her face in rivers. She trembled so hard she bcould /bbarely form words, her body curling in on itself as she wed against the floorboards. “Spare mei!/ii” /i

    Carmen’s eyes narrowed, cold and unyielding.

    “So even those who wield power in this world of wolves tremble before death. Even monsters can beg like dogs when their lives are threatened. Pathetic.”

    Her de shed, glinting in the dull light of the room. She pressed it against Elira’s face, letting the steel kiss her skin. The older woman shook so violently that a wet stain spread across her clothes.

    “Do not fear,” Carmen said softly, her lips twisting into a cruel smile. “I’ll reunite you with your beloved. He’s waiting for you in the abyss.b” /b

    The de arced downward.

    Elira’s eyes flew wide in terror. “No–you can’t kill me!”

    The knife stopped a breath away from her eye.

    The room fell into suffocating silence.

    Elira dared to open her eyes again, only to find the de poised so close that one twitch would end her. She screamed again and mped her eyes shut, her body quaking with fear.

    “You think you have the right to tell me what I can or cannot do?” Carmen’s smile curved darker. “You iare /inothing. You deserve to die, and every soul who touched Riley deserves to die. I’ll hunt you all, until thest of your line is ashes.”

    Her hand pushed the knife closer.

    “No! Wait!” Elira shrieked, her voice ragged with desperation. “If you kill me, you’ll never know–there’s a secret. A secret about Riley.”

    Carmen froze.

    The words cut through her rage like a ibl /i

    through bone. Her wolf stilled inside her chest.

    The knife hovered, trembling. Elira cracked her eyes open, heart hammering, and saw Carmen hesitate. Shetched onto that moment like prey grasping at air.

    “If you care about her,” Elira said, her voice breaking, “then you need to hear it.”

    “Speak.” Carmen’s voice was a growl, low and vibrating, eyes shing like molten silver.

    Elira mped her lips shut again, defiance flickering for one heartbeat. If Carmen wanted the secretb, /bshe would have to bargain.

    Carmen’s eyes narrowed. “You think silence will save you?”

    With a vicious thrust, she drove the de into Elira’s shoulder.

    C

    Chapter b308 /b

    bThe /bbdean /bbscreamed/bb, /bher bvoice /bechoing blike /bba /bbwounded /bbeast, beyes /bbflying /bbopen /bin shock.

    “bSay /bbit/bb, /bCarmen orderedb, /bher tone like steel, her face sttered with blood and bshadow/bb. /bb“/bOr I will make byour /bdeath slower than his. Every heartbeat will be agony.”

    Elira’s resolve cracked. “I’ll speak! I’ll say everything!” she howled, tears streaming.

    Carmen wrenched the de free, her lips curling in cold disdain. “Pathetic. Crawl and beg bif /bbyou /bbmust /bBut if your secret disappoints me, I’ll y you alive and scatter your bones for the crows.

    Terror consumed Elira. In that moment, she realized Carmen was no longer merely a girl of Ashmoor Academy. She was something more. Something monstrous. Something wolf.

    Elira’s voice shook as she began to whisper the truth about Riley–truth Carmen had never expectedb. /bbThe /brevtion struck her harder than any de could, freezing her in ce, her breath catching in her chest.

    For the first time that night, Carmen faltered.

    The secret was not just about Riley’s suffering.

    It was about Riley’s blood.

    And what still lived within her.