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Home / Werewolf / Puck Destiny : A Triplet's Claim / Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

All Chapters of Puck Destiny : A Triplet's Claim: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

152 Chapters

71

INKA'S POVIt's been an hour since they brought me to the clinic. Sarah—the medic, wrapped me in a blanket. But I'm not cold. This isn't cold. This is my body trying to process what happened and failing. "Almost done, sweetheart," Sarah murmurs.She's cleaning the scratches on my hands. The ones I got from clawing Darren's face.It stings but I don't react. I've learned to swallow pain. It's reacting to kindness that undoes me.Sarah moves to examine my throat and I have to fight every instinct not to flinch away when her fingers touch my neck. I don't like people touching my throat. Never have. Even before tonight.But now it's worse. Now all I can feel is Darren's hand there. Squeezing. Controlling."The bruising is significant," Sarah says quietly, and I hear her tablet chime as she documents it. "Finger-shaped. Consistent with manual strangulation attempt."I wonder if that's how she stays professional. By turning violence into medical terminology. By creating distance with words

72

INKA'S POVShe lunges for me again. I scramble back across the bed, but my back hits the wall and I'm trapped."You seduced him!" Miranda's whole body is shaking with rage."You threw yourself at my boy like the desperate WHORE you are! You followed him to the archivesYES, I KNOW, I'VE SEEN THE FOOTAGEyou lured him there like the PREDATOR you are!""That's not what" I try to say but my voice is weak. Scared."SHUT YOUR LYING MOUTH!" Miranda's hand shoots out and grabs my arm. Her nails dig in so hard I feel skin break. "I SAW HIS FACE! DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU DID? YOU DESTROYED HIS FACE!"Tears are streaming down her cheeks now but her expression is pure hatred."Those scratchesthe medic said they'll SCAR PERMANENTLY! My beautiful boy will carry those marks for the rest of his life because of you! BECAUSE OF YOU!"She shakes me violently and my head snaps back and forth. Pain radiates through my skull."Ma'am, you're assaulting a patient" Sarah tries again."ASSAULTING?" Miranda's

73

INKA'S POVSarah doesn't leave after Miranda storms out. She pulls up a chair and sits down next to my bed."I'm staying with you tonight," she says. "You shouldn't be alone."I want to tell her it's not necessary, but the words don't come. The truth is I'm terrified of being alone right now. Terrified of the dark. Terrified of my own thoughts.So I just nod.Sarah adjusts the blanket around me. "Try to get some rest. I'll be right here."Rest. As if that's possible.I close my eyes anyway, but sleep is impossible. Sarah sits quietly in her chair. She checks the monitors occasionally. Offers me water that I can't swallow because my throat is too tight. She doesn't try to make conversation or tell me everything will be okay.I'm grateful for that. Empty reassurances would be worse than silence.Outside my door, I hear footsteps. Reynolds is standing guard out there because even here in the medical wing, I'm not safe. Miranda could come back. Darren could try to finish what he started.

74

INKA'S POVAlpha Graham was standing at the side of my bed, looking at the bruises on my face, the finger marks Darren had left on my throat, the scratches on my hands. Looking at all of it. And the first word Alpha Graham chose was complicated.I took a slow breath.Okay. Okay, so that was how this was going to go.Alpha Graham's expression hadn't shifted once since he walked in. His voice was level. Professional. Like he was running a debrief instead of standing in front of a girl who had barely made it out of that archive in one piece."I've reviewed Reynolds' report," he said. "I've seen the security footage. I've spoken with the medic who examined both you and Darren."He paused."This is a complicated situation."There it was again.I turned the word over in my chest and it didn't get better the second time around."Complicated?" Hunter's voice went sharp. "Dad, Darren attacked her. He cornered her in the archives and assaulted her. There's footage.""The footage shows Inka ente

75

INKA'S POV I felt numb. Hollow in a way that was hard to put into words. Like someone had reached into my chest and scooped out the part of me that was still holding onto hope that this would end differently.Alpha Graham was sending me away. Shipping me off to the pack mansion like a problem that needed to be stored somewhere out of sight until the adults figured out what to do with it.I had thought this compound was starting to feel like somewhere I belonged.I was wrong about that too, apparently."How long?" My voice came out smaller than I wanted it to. I hated how small it sounded.Alpha Graham's expression shifted slightly. Something that almost looked like regret moved across it, brief and quickly buried."I don't know. Until things settle. Until I can deal with Miranda and the council members Miranda has turned. Until it's safe for Inka to come back.""She shouldn't have to leave at all," Hunter said. Hunter's hands were still on my face and I could feel them trembling. "Y

76

HUNTER'S POVI stood there with my hands shoved deep in my pockets and watched until the SUV taillights disappeared around the bend and there was nothing left to see but empty road.My wolf was going insane inside my head, demanding I shift and chase after her, but I forced myself to stay put because running after the vehicle like some kind of desperate idiot wasn't going to help anyone.I turned back toward the main building and noticed staff members suddenly finding reasons to be somewhere else. Nobody wanted to make eye contact with the Alpha's son who just got left behind while his mate was exiled. Fine by me. I didn't have anything to say to any of them anyway.I took the stairs two at a time and headed down the hallway to my room. Then I just stood there in the middle of the room staring at nothing in particular while my wolf paced and snarled and tried to claw its way out.The mate bond pulled tight across my chest like someone had tied a rope around my ribs and was slowly dra

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HUNTER'S POV "But Miranda twisted everything I said. She kept pushing and insisting that I must have seen it wrong, that Inka was actually flirting and I just didn't notice because I wasn't paying close enough attention. And I let her convince me that maybe I had gotten it wrong."It sounded plausible enough, but something about her body language was off. Too rehearsed, like she'd practiced this speech in the mirror before coming here."You could have corrected it later," I pointed out. "Could have gone to my father the next day and told him you made a mistake.""I tried exactly that. I went to Alpha Graham the next morning and said I wanted to change my statement, but he told me it was too late and the damage was already done." Victoria took a step closer to me. "Hunter, I know you're angry and you have every right to be. But I care about you. I've always cared about you.""Victoria—" I started, but she cut me off."Just listen for a minute, please." She took another step and now s

78

HUNTER'S POVThe succession training was worse than I remembered.Six hours of sitting in a conference room listening to Elder Whitmore drone on about territorial agreements from the 1800s. Six hours of fighting the urge to check my phone every five minutes to see if Seth had texted with updates about Inka. Six hours of pretending I gave a damn about any of this when all I wanted was to get in my truck and drive to the mansion.By the time Whitmore finally dismissed us at seven PM, my head was pounding and my wolf was clawing at the inside of my skull demanding I go find Inka.I walked out of the conference room and ran straight into Aaron and Blake waiting in the hallway. Aaron grinned when he saw me."Hunter. Man, you look like hell.""Feel like it too." I rubbed the back of my neck where tension had been building all day."We're heading to O'Malley's for drinks. Come with us." Aaron clapped me on the shoulder. "When's the last time you actually relaxed?"I couldn't remember. Befo

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HUNTER'S POV "We've got it." Blake's voice had an edge to it. "You've both been drinking. I haven't." Victoria's hand clamped down on my bicep. I tried to shake her off but my arm wasn't cooperating. "Come on, Hunter. Let's get you back." "We're taking him." Aaron's grip on my other arm tightened. "You've had four drinks, Aaron. You planning to drive drunk?" Victoria's tone sharpened. "My car's right there. Yours is in the back lot. He could pass out before you even get him there." I tried to tell them to back off, tried to say I'd walk my own damn self to the truck, but my tongue was thick and useless. What came out was incomprehensible noise. "He's worse than I thought." Victoria sounded almost satisfied. "He needs to get back now." Aaron and Blake looked at each other. I could see them wavering. "I don't know," Blake said. "We used to date. We're friends. I'm trying to help him." Victoria's fingers dug into my arm. "Unless you think I'm planning something? With an unconsci

80

INKA'S POV I'd been staring at the ceiling for like an hour trying to figure out what was bugging me, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Just this nagging feeling in the back of my head that something was off. Like when about to leave the house and suddenly sure of forgetting something but can't remember what. The room was dark and quiet. Seth and Zane had both checked on me before heading to bed. Everything was fine. I was safe. I should've been able to sleep. But I couldn't shake it. I rolled over and stared at the wall instead. Maybe it was just being here at the mansion instead of the compound. Or maybe it was thinking about Hunter stuck doing succession training while I was hiding out here like some kind of problem they needed to solve. I closed my eyes and tried to chill out. Just breathe. In and out. Slow and steady. That's when it started. Not like a sudden stab or anything. More like this slow burn building in my chest. Uncomfortable at first, then worse. Like someone

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