CHAPTER 134: UGLY AND DISGUSTING

When I found myself in Levian pack last night with Finn standing before me, I never imagined it would end like this.

I stared at the corpse. Finn was dead. I had killed him. I had avenged my mother just as I had promised her and myself.

The whole pack stood frozen, but nobody came near me. Fear was written on their faces. I spotted the council members among the crowd, the same people who had shunned my family and treated us worst of all. Their horror-stricken expressions were a sight to behold.

"She killed the Alpha! Seize the criminal!" someone shouted after a moment of silence.

It was Esther’s father, the chief Beta. Beside him stood Esther, pale and wide-eyed. She looked as if she might vomit.

Then she turned to me, tears of fury in her eyes as if she were ready to kill me with her own hands. But she didn’t move an inch to get to me.

"What are you waiting for? Get her!"

The warriors closed ranks, but none seemed eager to approach. After what they had seen I could do, their hesitation was understandable. If I were in their place, I would have hesitated too.

Shadows peeled away at my side, and in the blink of an eye, Rion’s great black wolf materialised a few feet away.

"What do you want to do? Shall we kill them all?" he asked in a bright voice which told me he wouldn’t mind doing that. He’d even be entertained.

"Can you teleport us back to Undercity, even from here?" I asked.

Honestly, killing Finn had been everything. The council members had wronged me as well, but the sight of their faces, horror-struck and helpless, was reward enough. The idea of them dreaming of this day, or of me coming for them in the dark while wondering when their turn would be, felt satisfying.

There was, however, someone else I needed to settle with.

I told Rion what I wanted to do through our mind link, and he was only too happy to oblige.

***

Now, in my human form, I stood in the Levian pack’s dungeon, the very cell where I had been held and where Stella had been tortured and killed.

The dungeon was sealed. With Rion’s power, no one could enter unless he allowed it.

Before me, Esther knelt, her arms chained and hanging. Her once-beautiful clothes were streaked with dirt, and her carefully styled hair lay in disarray. Gone was the arrogant look she always wore. I could not have been happier to strip her of that.

"I don’t know what witchcraft you’ve wrapped yourself in," she said, "but I am sure you are not the Celestial Wolf. You only mimic her with whatever dark magic you use. Do you think you can scare me? You fucking bitch. You deserve to rot in hell for what you did to Finn!"

"If you think my power comes from witchcraft, I don’t care," I said, calm and sharp. "It doesn’t change the fact that your life is at the tips of my fingers now. You have no power, and the Alpha you worshipped is dead. You are alone here, Esther. No one is coming to help you."

She trembled with anger. I smiled because I could see that beneath her fury was raw fear.

This was the first time I’d seen Esther like this, and it was deliciously entertaining.

"You think I’d just forget everything you did to me?" I shook my head. "I might have spared you if you hadn’t had Stella killed. She was innocent, and you did it for your amusement. How could you stomach something like that?"

Esther laughed, high and unhinged.

"Fine! Kill me then! Kill me so I can see Finn again. I don’t want a world where he doesn’t exist."

She sounded detached from reality. I almost pitied her.

"Yeah," I said, smirking. "I’m sure you’ll meet him in hell. But not yet. Death is too easy for you. How about a little game first?"

I walked to the rack of weapons along the wall. Chains, hooks, a set of cruel tools the Levian pack used for punishment. The leather smelled faintly of oil and old blood. Her eyes widened as I scanned the tools, anger and dread flickering across her face.

I picked up a whip, testing its weight. The leather hissed as it flexed.

"You can’t shift with those chains on," I told her, studying the way her shoulders hunched. "So stop trying."

She spat. "I don’t care about your games. Just kill me now and be done with it!"

I crouched in front of her. I tilted her chin with one finger, then grabbed a fistful of hair until she yelped. The metal at her wrists rattled a panicked rhythm.

"Body or face? Which one should I hit first?" I murmured, letting the question hang. "I wonder what Finn would prefer. His beloved whore unscarred, or marked? Will he recognize you in the afterlife even with the ugly scars?"

I enjoyed watching the color drain from her cheeks.

"Kill me!" she screamed, straining at the chains.

The noise reverberated through the dungeon. Rion wasn’t in the cell, but he was somewhere in the dungeon, in the shadows. He’d told me earlier that he’d stand guard and let me take my time.

"I will kill you," I said, tightening my grip on the whip. "But not too fast. I will make you pay. I will savor it."

"I knew it. I knew you are always crazy. You were just hiding it before, but now you’re exposing your true self. How ugly and disgusting you are inside!"

"Ugly?" I cocked my head. "Have you ever looked in a mirror and thought about your sins, Esther? I doubt you have."

I lashed the whip across her cheek. Her scream cut sharp.

"When I finish giving you scars and making your face my artwork," I said through gritted teeth, "I’ll hold a mirror up to you. I’ll let you see the real face of ugly and disgusting."