Chapter 4
Travis's growl rumbles through my chest, low and threatening. The silver still burns in my veins, but my wolf's fury cuts through the poison like a blade. Hope stands just feet away, that cruel smile still playing on her lips.
"You were never meant to be anything but a tool," she repeats, her voice dripping with satisfaction.
Travis bares his teeth through my human form, and I feel my canines elongate slightly. The warning is clear—back off or face the consequences.
But Hope doesn't back off. Instead, her smile widens.
Then everything happens at once.
Hope lunges sideways toward the stone pillar that decorates the garden entrance. Before I can process what she's doing, she drags her arm across the jagged edge with a sickening scrape. Blood immediately wells up, dark and thick in the moonlight.
"No—" I start, but she's already throwing herself backward.
Down the patio stairs she tumbles, her body hitting each stone step with horrible thuds. The sound of bone meeting stone makes my stomach lurch. When she finally comes to rest at the bottom, blood streams from the gash on her arm and a new cut on her forehead.
For a heartbeat, everything is silent.
Then Hope's scream pierces the night.
"HELP ME!" Her voice is raw, agonized, carrying across the estate grounds. "SHE ATTACKED ME! THE FERAL WOLF ATTACKED ME!"
I'm frozen, staring down at her crumpled form in horror. This isn't real. This can't be happening.
"Travis went mad!" Hope sobs, clutching her bleeding arm to her chest. "He threw me down the stairs! Oh goddess, the baby—the baby!"
Baby?
My blood turns to ice.
"She killed my pup!" Hope's wails grow louder, more desperate. "Damian's heir! She murdered our child!"
The lie hits me like a physical blow. There was no baby. There couldn't have been. But as Hope writhes on the ground, blood soaking through her dress, her performance is flawless.
Footsteps thunder across the estate grounds. Voices shouting. The pack warriors are coming, drawn by their Beta's daughter's screams.
"Hope!" I stumble toward the stairs, my legs still weak from the silver. "Stop this. Tell them the truth!"
But she only screams louder. "Stay back! Don't let her near me!"
The first warrior reaches us—a massive wolf named Kane who's served Hope's father for years. His eyes take in the scene: Hope bleeding at the bottom of the stairs, me standing above her with Travis still flickering in my gaze.
His conclusion is instant.
"Murderer," he snarls.
I barely have time to raise my hands before he tackles me to the ground. My weakened body offers no resistance as his weight crushes me into the dirt. The impact drives the air from my lungs.
"I didn't—" I gasp, but Kane's knee presses into my spine.
"Shut up," he growls. "You've done enough damage."
More warriors arrive, surrounding us in a circle of hostile faces. They see what Hope wants them to see—a dangerous, unstable wolf who just attacked their Beta's pregnant daughter.
"Get off me!" Travis surges forward, lending me strength I don't have. But the silver in my system makes even his power feel muted, distant.
Another warrior joins Kane, and together they pin my arms behind my back. The position sends fire through my shoulders, but their grip is unrelenting.
"Hope, sweetheart." Damian's voice cuts through the chaos.
I crane my neck and see him running across the grounds, his face a mask of panic and rage. He drops to his knees beside Hope's bleeding form, gathering her into his arms with infinite tenderness.
"The baby," Hope whispers, and even I can hear the fake weakness in her voice. "Damian, I'm so sorry. I couldn't protect our baby."
Damian's head snaps up, his eyes finding mine across the garden. The fury in his gaze is absolute. Murderous.
"You killed my child," he says, and his voice is deadly quiet.
"There was no child!" I struggle against the warriors' hold, desperation making my voice crack. "She's lying! She hurt herself!"
"SILENCE." Damian's Alpha command crashes over me like a tidal wave, forcing my wolf to cower despite Travis's rage.
He stands slowly, Hope still cradled in his arms, and walks toward me. Each step is measured, controlled, but I can feel the violence radiating from him.
"You will never speak again," he says when he reaches me. "Not to defend yourself. Not to spread your poison. You're done."
Kane produces silver chains from his belt—the kind used for the most dangerous criminals. The metal burns my skin the moment it touches me, and Travis retreats deeper into my mind with a whimper of pain.
"Damian, please," I whisper as the chains lock around my wrists. "You know me. You know I wouldn't—"
His hand strikes my cheek with enough force to snap my head sideways. The slap echoes across the silent grounds.
"I know exactly what you are," he says. "And tomorrow, so will everyone else."
As the warriors drag me away, Hope's satisfied smile burns itself into my memory. She's won. Completely and utterly.
And tomorrow, she'll watch me burn.
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