76

ALINA

I didn’t know what I expected when Alexander said I should come with him, but it definitely wasn’t this. I didn’t think I would walk into a room and find Jane bloody, tied to a chair and barely upright. My steps faltered, my breath getting stuck.

I turned to him, confused, words scrambling in my throat but never making it past my lips.

She made a faint sound, barely audible, like a groan dragged from somewhere deep inside her. Her head lifted just a little, like even that simple act drained her. Our eyes met, and my breath caught. There was fear in hers. Real terror.

But nothing else. No guilt. No regret. Not even the decency to look ashamed. Just fear for herself. Not for what she had done.

And the sight of it made my chest squeeze. Something twisted tight behind my ribs, and I felt that awful burn in the back of my throat. My eyes stung. But I refused to cry.

“What… what is this?” My voice cracked, barely holding together. My balance wavered as my gaze moved between him and her.

I could feel the trembling in my hands, the uneasy lurch in my stomach. Like the food I couldn’t even remember eating was trying to come up.

Alexander stepped closer, voice low and deceptively calm. “I thought I’d give you a gift.”

His fingers brushed down my arm like we were just two people standing in a room and not… whatever this was. I flinched before I could stop myself. I turned to him, a silent plea in my eyes. This wasn’t what I wanted.

Even after everything Jane had done. I didn’t want this. Not this version of justice. Not this brutal, broken version of her. Her eyes didn’t hold anything now. Not even the glint of calculation I once mistook for kindness.

Alexander continued, almost offhandedly. “Maybe since you two were close, she’ll be more inclined to speak with you here.”

He gave my wrist a soft pull, guiding me further into the room, then shut the door behind us. The click of the lock sent a chill crawling up my spine.

He walked to his usual seat, settled into it with a kind of effortless dominance that made it impossible to forget who he was. The Lycan King. The Wolf Slayer. The man who killed as easily as he breathed. And today, I was watching him work.

This time, on someone I once called a friend.

“Come on, love.” His voice was smooth as silk, but something sharp rested beneath it. He gestured lazily. “Come sit with me.”

I didn’t even realize I was moving until I sank into the chair across from him. The space between us stretched like a warning. He didn’t like that I didn’t sit next to him. I could see it in the tightening of his jaw, the flicker of something colder in his eyes. But he didn’t say anything. That silence unsettled me more than anything he could have said.

“So, Liana…”

“Jane,” I corrected quietly, without thinking.

His mouth curved into a slow smile. Not the soft kind. The dangerous kind. His eyes narrowed slightly, and I instantly dropped my gaze, missing whatever expression came next.

“Right. Thank you, baby,” he said, still smiling, though there was something in his voice I couldn’t quite place.

He turned his focus back to her. “Now, Jane. Look at her. Tell her to her face why you betrayed her.”

She mumbled something through the gag tied tight around her mouth. Her words were a slurred mess of panic and desperation.

Alexander sighed, exasperated. “She’s wasting our time.”

He flicked his hand, and the door creaked open. A man walked in, dressed in the uniform I’d come to recognize. One of his trusted warriors. They wore different badges. Their uniform was darker.

There were only a handful of them, maybe five in total. Alexander knew them by name. They had unrestricted access to nearly every room in the estate. All except his bedroom. That space, as far as I knew, only Lisa could walk into uninvited.

That fact hit me differently now.

But I didn’t have time to unpack that because the moment the man pulled the gag down, Jane screamed.

It was sharp. It was painful. It tore through the room and me, like a knife and lodged itself deep in my chest. I recoiled instinctively. My body wanted to move, to do something. Say something. But what was there to say? I didn’t even know what the boundaries were anymore, or if they even existed.

Tears welled in my eyes again. I didn’t dare let them fall.

I glanced at Alexander. His face had twisted in annoyance, and he raked a hand through his hair, messing up the strands.

“Shut her up,” he said coolly.

The warrior moved fast. He pulled a syringe from his coat pocket, injected something into Jane’s arm, and stepped back. She stilled almost instantly. But she wasn’t unconscious. Her eyes were still open, staring forward like she was trapped in her own body.

Watching it happen made my stomach turn. It felt like watching someone die with their eyes open.

“Finally, some peace.” Alexander waved his hand again, and the man turned to pour a drink. “Whiskey for me. The lady will have… water, I think. Unless you want wine, baby?”

I barely shook my head, and he noticed.

“Water it is,” he said, his tone lighter.

He raised his glass, took a single sip, then set it back down. The man returned with a bottle of water and placed it in front of me. I grabbed it with trembling hands and downed half of it immediately, trying to wash away the awful dryness in my throat.

By the time I set the bottle down, Alexander was no longer sitting.

I didn’t even see him move. But one moment he was across the desk, the next he was crouched beside my chair, his presence overwhelming.

His voice was low when he spoke, just a whisper against my ear.

“Just relax.”

Relax?

How could I? The air in the room felt like it was pressing against my skin, suffocating and sharp. I didn’t know if this was supposed to be a gift or a punishment. All I knew was that the image of Jane, bloody with empty eyes has been engraved in my brain and it'll be there for a long time. Her screams still echoed inside me, even though the room had gone quiet.

And I knew something for certain.

I would never forget the sound.

There was that silent voice in my head that reminded me this would be me the moment Alexander finds out my truth. I needed to escape before he figured that out.