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“Why prolong the inevitable? You know I am going to kill you, him, and everyone else involved. So why not just hurry the process up?”
“No.” Power swirled behind his remaining eye, the wolf inside ready to end me, but I had drained him to near death.
I sighed and stopped in front of him, shaking my coat off my shoulders. My hands gripped the sides of my shirt, and I parted the low dip a tad farther. Julian’s face scrunched as I exposed the skin between my breasts.
I pointed to a small scar. It was almost completely healed. Almost.
“I ripped my heart out in a tomb months ago. I thought I’d die, but I was willing to give up my life for those I care about, and I didn’t see another option. If Tobias got the book, then Samkiel and my sister would die. But that was back when I believed in the greater good and saving people, blah, blah, blah.”
His breathing hitched.
“It didn’t kill me,” I glanced up, “but I thought about what bliss it is to die for the ones you care for.” I shrugged back into my jacket and held his gaze. “This isn’t the same thing. There is no glory in your death or theirs. You’re not saving them. You all assured your deaths the second you let Kaden keep her and didn’t move to help.”
“We couldn’t, and you know that!” he spat. “You knew what Kaden would do, and still, you aligned yourself with the World Ender. You are to blame for—”
My hand whipped across his face with such force blood splattered the wall. I gripped his hair, forcing him to look at me. “Where are the others?” I snarled in his face.
“I won’t tell you.”
“Fine.”
I lifted my free hand, talons replacing nails, the curved tips glistening. I ripped them across Julian’s chest. He hissed and writhed in pain, his shirt hanging in tatters.
“I know werewolves are pack animals. Even with you all hiding from me, you wouldn’t be too far away from one another, especially the know-it-all son who needed a night out, right? I also know you howl to signal your pack, and with the heightened vocals of your species, it can be heard almost fifty miles away in open terrain.”
I placed the tip of my nails in the center of his chest, over his pounding heart. “Do you want to know what it feels like to have your heart ripped out?”
“I won’t call him.”
“Yes, you will. Anything will break when you apply the right pressure, even you.” The tips of my nails pierced his skin, his entire body going rigid. I tipped my head, my voice dropping an octave as the Ig’Morruthen in me crawled to the surface. “Now, scream for Daddy.”
* * *
The front door burst open. I stayed seated at the bar, wiping the blood from my cuticles.
“Took you long enough.”
Feet ran into the room, hurrying to Julian’s hanging body. A soft sob escaped one throat and then another as they reached him. I continued to clean my hands. That one damned spot was almost impossible to get. I licked the edge of the small towel and rubbed, finally getting the last smudge before placing the blood-covered towel on the bar. I stood and studied my nails, the ragged edges after turning them to talons bothering me.
“I wonder if I ask nicely if Camilla would get me a permanent set. There has to be some magic for that, right? No more chipped nails.”
Caleb appeared in front of me, huffing and his chest rumbling with a low-level growl.
“What did you do?” he snapped at me.
I glanced at Julian’s body as the wolves cut him down and held him. “I didn’t do anything. It’s not my fault you took too long.”
“Killing my son will be the worst mistake you have—”
“No.” The room shook with the force of my voice, gaining the attention of every wolf in the room. “You, like the rest, made a mistake thinking I was weak when she was the only thing keeping me in line. This is your consequence. I warned you. I warned him. You chose.”
“You act as if we could defy Kaden.”
“That is the weakest excuse I have ever heard when you are all supernatural fucking creatures. I did. I defied him.” The tiny bit of control in me that wanted answers began to fray. “Gods, Caleb, my balls are bigger than yours.”
“Why my son, Dianna?” he choked out. “How are you even different from Kaden? He was innocent in all of this.”
The wolves stepped closer, flexing their fists, ready to die for their alpha. I kept my gaze on Caleb as the bar went silent. No one even breathed.
