9
+15 BONUS
“Did you receive my ring?” Ryan asked as I entered the Council chambers, his voice cracking. “The healing crystal… it was worth millions.”
He didn’t know I’d auctioned his precious heirloom for orphaned pups.
“Celeste, please,” Ryan stumbled forward. “We can start over. Have another pup. Be a family again-”
The crack of my hand across his face echoed through the chamber. “Another pup? To replace the one you let die?”
“I just came to watch your sentencing,” I said coldly.
Katherine rushed forward, her silver hair wild, her aristocratic face ravaged by grief. “Celeste, please! I didn’t know he was my grandson! I would never have injected the silver if I’d known!”
She collapsed to her knees, clawing at my dress with trembling hands. “Forgive me! I killed my own blood! My precious grandson!”
William’s fist cracked across Ryan’s face, sending him sprawling onto the stone floor.
“This is your fault!” he roared, kicking his fallen son. “Your weakness destroyed our family! Your cowardice killed my grandson! You let us murder our own blood to protect that whore’s brat!”
Sarah stepped forward, Jamie cowering behind her threadbare clothes. “Please, the Council can’t imprison them all-”
Katherine’s wolf exploded forth. Her fangs tore into Sarah’s shoulder, ripping flesh and spraying blood across the marble.
“You dare show your face?” she snarled, blood dripping from her muzzle. Her claws slashed at Jamie, who screamed. “You and
your murderer bastard ruined everything! You made me kill my own grandson!”
The Council’s judgment came down like a silver blade.
Life imprisonment in Silver Prison for them all. Daily exposure to silver–laced water as punishment for an innocent pup’s death.
“Celeste,” Ryan called as guards dragged him away in chains. “Please! I’ll make it right- I’ll do anything-”
“You already did,” I said softly, touching Marcus’s pendant. “Your suffering is exactly what Marcus deserved. Every day in that
silver cell, remember – this is what you let them do to your son.”
I watched them lead my former pack’s nobility away. Katherine’s sobs, William’s rage, Sarah’s pleading, Jamie’s whimpers.
And Ryan, my former mate, broken by his own choices.
Emma squeezed my hand as we left. “It’s over, sister.”
“No,” I touched Marcus’s pendant, feeling my son’s presence. “This is just the beginning of their hell. And the beginning of my
