Chapter 3

Mother tosses the silver brooch, now coated in black blood, onto Selene’s unconscious face with pure disgust. She straightens up and claps her hands lightly.

Heavy, synchronized footsteps shake the floor outside. A squad of werewolf warriors in pitch-black armor floods into the ruined boutique like a dark tide. The crowned wolf head, the absolute symbol of royal authority, is branded across their chests. Dozens of pureblood Lycan auras merge, instantly sucking all the oxygen out of the room.

The ordinary wolves who were already shivering in the corners roll their eyes back and pass out in droves under the terrifying pressure.

The captain of the royal guard drops heavily to one knee in front of Mother. "Your Majesty. Forgive our delay."

"Lock down the entire mall," Mother says without even blinking. "Nobody leaves here today. Not even a fly."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

The guards instantly draw their weapons and seal every exit.

Mother turns and walks back to me. She crouches down and carefully scoops me out of the pool of blood into her arms.

It hurts. It hurts like a bitch. The silver poison is still eating away at my flesh, and my shattered fingers make my whole body twitch uncontrollably. But I bite down hard on my lip, forcing my swollen eyes to stay wide open. How could I close them now? I need to watch these arrogant pieces of trash get ground into dust.

"Baby," Mother whispers, gently stroking the uninjured left side of my face. "What do you want to do with them?"

I cough up a mouthful of bloody spit. Staring dead at Derrick, who is shaking like a leaf on the floor, I gather every ounce of my remaining strength, lean close to Mother's ear, and grit out three words.

"Ruin them all."

Mother nods tenderly. "Okay. Whatever you say."

She sets me down gently on a leather sofa that somehow survived the chaos, then turns and walks toward Derrick.

Derrick's proud Alpha bones have already been crushed by the royal aura. He just lies there like a dead dog. When he sees Mother bend over and pick up the silver whip from the blood puddle, his pupils dilate to the absolute limit.

It is the exact same whip he used on me. Pieces of my skin still hang off the tip.

Mother glides her velvet-gloved fingertips down the length of the whip, feeling the wet blood.

"No. You can't touch me!" Derrick scrambles backward in terror, his voice cracking. "I'm the Alpha here! My father runs the northern border pack with over a hundred thousand wolves! If you hurt me, he'll start a war."

"Your father?" Mother actually laughs, though her eyes are as cold as a corpse. "You mean that piece of trash who followed my husband around and only made border captain by eating the royal family's scraps?"

Derrick's expression freezes. He stops breathing entirely.

The silver whip tears through the air and slashes viciously across Derrick's back.

Derrick unleashes a bloodcurdling scream.

His shrieks are ten times worse than mine were. A normal Alpha's resistance to silver is nothing compared to royal blood. That single strike blasts his back wide open, leaving a trench so deep you can see the bone. His charred flesh instantly peels outward.

Watching him thrash wildly on the floor in agony, the rage in my chest burns out of control. I don't even feel my own wounds anymore. Scream. Weren't you laughing when you did this to me?

"That was for the first strike against my daughter," Mother says, her voice like ice.

The whip comes down a second time without warning, splitting Derrick's left shoulder open.

"That one was for letting that bitch ruin my daughter's face."

Derrick's shoulder blade cracks under the blow. He flops on the floor like a dying fish, his face covered in tears and snot. "Have mercy. Please. I didn't know she was the princess."

The third strike falls perfectly from above, slicing violently right through the corner of Derrick's left eye.

The sickening thud of tearing flesh is enough to make anyone's skin crawl. A giant, bloody gash instantly cuts diagonally across his entire face. His left eye is completely ruined. Blood sprays like a fountain over the shattered pieces of the crystal chandelier.

"And that was for making my daughter bark."

Derrick clutches his mutilated face, curling into a ball in his own blood. His body seizes wildly. Only breathy, broken hisses escape his throat. Right now, he is worse off than a stray dog.

Mother pauses, then casually drops the gore-covered whip by Derrick's feet.

"You still owe three lashes. I'll save those for my daughter to deliver herself when she heals."

With that, Mother pulls her phone from her clutch, dials a number, and puts it straight on speaker.

It rings twice before connecting. A raspy, deep, yet incredibly respectful voice echoes through the dead-silent boutique.

"Your Majesty. I await your command."

On the floor, Derrick stiffens completely.

It is his father's voice. The man he views as an invincible god, the king of the borders who could cover the sky with one hand, is now speaking to my mother with the groveling tone of a beggar.

Mother keeps her eyes on Derrick as she speaks plainly. "Derrick. Your son."

The old Alpha's breathing instantly hitches on the other end. His voice trembles. "Your Majesty. Did that animal offend you?"

"He used a silver whip on my daughter. Four lashes." Mother's voice is completely flat. "He also let some trashy Beta ruin her face and forced her to bark like a dog."

Suffocating silence takes over the line.

A good ten seconds pass before a wretched, pathetic wail bursts from the speaker.

"Your Majesty! I deserve death! I should die! That worthless bastard, he..."

"I'm not going to kill him," Mother cuts off the old Alpha's crying without hesitation.

The crying stops abruptly.

Staring right into Derrick's despairing eyes, Mother declares every word with lethal precision. "But I will make him wish he was dead. Do you have a problem with that?"

Another beat of silence. When the old Alpha finally speaks, he sounds like he has aged a decade. "Your Majesty. He is yours. Do whatever you want with him. I won't say a word."

Hearing those words shatters the very last defense in Derrick's mind.

He squirms frantically in the pool of blood like an abandoned maggot, shrieking hysterically at the phone. "Dad! Dad, you can't abandon me! I'm your only son! Dad!"

The call disconnects ruthlessly.

"No. No." Derrick claws at the floor in absolute despair until his fingernails snap off.

Right then, a rustling noise comes from the rubble nearby.

Selene finally wakes up from passing out. She heard everything. She knows Derrick's backing has entirely crumbled.

Now, absolutely no one can save her.

Driven by pure desperation, she crawls out of the debris. Looking like a literal bitch, she drags her punctured arm behind her, leaving a long trail of blood as she scrambles frantically toward Mother.

She reaches Mother's feet and repeatedly slams her bloody, mangled forehead against Mother's stained heels.

"Your Majesty! I was wrong! I'm a worthless bitch, I'm an animal! I don't deserve to live!" Selene screams, using her good hand to violently slap her own ruined face. Every strike looks like she wants to knock her own teeth out. "Please spare me! I'll never do it again! I'll be the princess's dog! I'll lick your shoes every single day!"

Looking at her pathetic, disgusting face, I feel nothing but pure satisfaction. Where did that arrogant woman who told me to get on my knees go?

Mother looks down at her with the exact same disgust you would reserve for a cockroach.

"Don't dirty my shoes."

Two massive royal guards instantly step forward, grabbing Selene by the ankles and dragging her away like a dead dog.

"No! Please! Princess! I'll grovel! A thousand times! A million times!" Selene digs her nails into the floorboards, gouging bloody grooves as she screams her lungs out.

Mother turns to walk back to me, pausing right as she passes Selene.

She glares down at that mutilated face, her voice freezing to the bone. "You made my daughter bark. You will pay for that with a lifetime of wishing you were dead."

Selene's eyes roll back, and she passes out from pure terror.

Mother comes over, gathers me back into her arms, and strides out of the boutique.

As we step through the mall's shattered entrance, the blinding sunlight hits my bloody face. The sharp sting makes me shrink into Mother's chest.

She lowers her head and presses an incredibly gentle kiss to my bloodstained forehead.

"Don't be afraid, baby. I will make them pay for every ounce of pain they caused you." Her voice is colder than a blizzard. "Ten times. A hundred times. A thousand times over."

I lean against her shoulder, slowly closing my eyes as a satisfied, cold smile finally tugs at the corners of my mouth.

Behind us, deep inside the mall, Derrick's despairing wails mix with Selene's shrieks as she gets dragged to the dungeons. On both sides of the street, thousands of ordinary wolves and citizens kneel on the ground, packed tightly together. Not a single person dares to look up or even breathe too loudly.

Some of the more cowardly wolves have already pissed their pants in fear.

Mother's motorcade slowly pulls away, crushing the broken glass under its tires as it heads off into the distance.